THE GUARDIAN: Tony Blair's handshake with Muammar Gaddafi in 2004 began an uneasy relationship that now presents difficult questionsOn 25 February 2004, Tony Blair stood up in the Libyan capital Tripoli and shook hands with an eccentric dictator who until then had been regarded as an international pariah for his involvement in sponsoring terrorism.
That man was Muammar Gaddafi, who, Blair announced, had joined Britain in the fight against terror.
Asked if he was queasy about meeting Libya's leader, Blair replied: "It was strange, given the history, to come here and do this and, of course, I am conscious of the pain that people have suffered as a result of terrorist actions in the past."
What Blair meant, to be explicit, was Libya's involvement in downing a US airliner over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, and the shooting of a British police constable, WPC Yvonne Fletcher, by a gunman who fired from inside the Libyan embassy in London.
Announcing a "new relationship", however, Blair said he had been struck by how the Libyan leader wished to join with Britain in "common cause with us against al-Qaida, extremists and terrorism".
That was then. In the last few days it has been Gaddafi who has looked liked the extremist, sending troops, and reportedly mercenaries, to crush demonstrations against his rule in the towns of Benghazi and Al Bayda. Human Rights Watch says this has led to the deaths of at least 85 of his people.
But it has not only been a dubious partnership against terror that has increasingly embroiled the United Kingdom in Libya's affairs. There has been a second "common cause" that has underpinned the relationship with Gaddafi's regime, underscored by the announcement on the same day in 2004 of a £550m deal with Shell for exploration rights.
Now Britain's risky and controversial relationship with Libya is beginning rapidly to unravel. >>> Peter Beaumont and Andrew Clark | Saturday, February 19, 2011
