Britain offered Gaddafi £14m to stop supporting the IRA

DoireNod

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/britain-offered-gaddafi-16314m-to-stop-supporting-the-ira-1797754.html

Britain offered to pay Colonel Muammar Gaddafi £14m in return for Libya ending its military support for the IRA, secret papers seen by The Independent have revealed.


The deal, worth £500m today, was part of a package of compensation measures to appease the Libyan leader and help open up trade with the North African state during the late 1970s.
Discovery of the secret offer, detailed in a letter sent by the then Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, raises fresh questions about whether Britain has ever paid Gaddafi compensation.

[...]
By the end of 1976, with the £14m offer still on the table, British interest was dominated by a desire to capitalise on Libyan trade.


A Foreign Office memo reads: "The arguments for ending the dispute are, if anything, more powerful than ... in July 1975. Our share of the Libyan trade has fallen by half in the last five years, although it has remained steady over the past 12 months. Prospects of getting a share of the latest Libyan five-year plan, which has an investment budget of dinars 7bn are correspondingly poor."


But at the close of the decade, it was clear the policy of appeasement towards Col Gaddafi had failed. Libya had rejected the offer and was holding out for a more generous payment of £51m – £1.5bn today. Britain's ambassador in Tripoli, Donald Murray, wrote to London: "HMG made a genuine ex gratia offer in order to improve relations, even though they had no call to do so. It has been categorically rejected. There is still discrimination against our bilateral trade. Despite the discussion which Colonel Qadhafi had with HM ambassador in October 1975, there is no indication that the Libyan government wants to understand our problem on Ireland and we are now invited to interpret Libyan government policy from nothing more substantial than one remark which Colonel Qadhafi made to an American journalist."

I always find these 'secret' documents and their sudden discovery interesting. Your thoughts?

Biggins

The world won't ever know even 5% of the crap that goes on in the background - that will always be unknown to them.
Nothing surprises me any more.

Victor

DoireNod wrote: »

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/britain-offered-gaddafi-16314m-to-stop-supporting-the-ira-1797754.html
I always find these 'secret' documents and their sudden discovery interesting. Your thoughts?

Ever see someone you haven't seen in years and see them twice in one week? Similar effect. Payments to Libya are topical, someone went looking through the archives.

Joey the lips

Yes i read this in the paper today. But afraid of the boards backlash and with due caution i ask whats so interesting to discuss it?


like i find it massivly interesting that Britain condems Iran over its nuclear program today but will most likely sell it steel to build submarines next week.

I am trying to figure an angle for discussion and I cant!

mike65

Britain offered to pay Colonel Muammar Gaddafi £14m in return for Libya ending its military support for the IRA, secret papers seen by The Independent have revealed.


The deal, worth £500m today, was part of a package of compensation measures to appease the Libyan leader and help open up trade with the North African state during the late 1970s.

I doubt it somehow.