Libya, the West and Al-Megrahi
This is the headline of an editorial in the Khaleej Times, which is an English language publication in the UAE.
It sums up the issues well and doesn’t really take any particular point of view. But it does add a fact that a lot of people seem to be forgetting in the last paragraph. That is the shooting down by the USS Vincennes of an Iranian Airbus.
Most Western intelligence services saw the bombing of Pan Am 103 as an act of revenge, which obviously it was. The US warship Vincennes had shot down an Iranian Airbus five months before the Pan Am bombing, killing all 290 mostly Iranian passengers, and the Iranians were seen as getting even. Of course, this is not to suggest Teheran had been behind the bombing. As we have argued, there was no dearth of America’s enemies then, just as there’s no dearth of them now. Just about any body could have done it. This is why the Western nations and Libya would do well to exercise restraint. They mustn’t undo all the good work that has been done to bridge the gulf between the Arab country and the West.
The last point is also put very well.
What’s done is done and although it was horrific beyond belief, we all owe it to the world to move on.
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