Posted on 01/07/2004 1:45:48 AM PST by kattracks
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi could open ties with Israel, an Israeli MP who has met Mr Gaddafi's son has said."Gaddafi has made a strategic decision, and he is not a man of small steps," Labour legislator Ephraim Sneh said.
"He will not stop half-way. He could go as far as relations with Israel, and beyond," Mr Sneh told Israel Radio.
Libya - which announced dramatically last month it would give up banned weapons - has never recognised Israel and has called for its destruction.
Mr Sneh confirmed on Wednesday that he and another Israeli legislator had met the Libyan leader's son on the sidelines of an academic conference last August.
Mr Gaddafi's son - who is also named Muammar - is considered a likely successor to the Libyan leader.
Delegations
Mr Sneh's remarks come amid reports in both the Israeli and Arabic media that Libya and Israel have been exploring the possibility of establishing relations.
A senior Israeli foreign ministry official, Ron Prosor, met an Arab official in Paris in late December, to test the waters, Israeli reports said.
Israeli Government sources have refused to confirm the report officially.
But the daily Haaretz said Mr Prosor had briefed Prime Minister Ariel Sharon about the initiative.
Unnamed officials in Mr Sharon's office said the chance of relations with Libya did not "appear serious".
A Kuwaiti newspaper sparked the speculation about possible Libya-Israel relations on Tuesday by reporting that an Israeli delegation was due to visit Tripoli later this month for talks.
Al-Siyasa newspaper said officials from Israel's foreign and defence ministries and Mossad intelligence service would hold talks in Libya on ending hostilities between the two countries - which date from Israel's founding in 1948.
It quoted European diplomatic sources as saying that high-ranking Libyan and Israeli officials met an American diplomat in Vienna last Friday.
The newspaper said the Libyan leader's son, Said al-Islam, and the head of Libyan intelligence, also met Israeli officials several times in Geneva and London last year.
Israeli diplomatic sources called the report "exaggerated and far-fetched", the Jerusalem Post reported.
This is all done to confuse the dreaded Zionist enemy
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