Emyr Jones Parry (L), Britain's ambassador to the United Nations, speaks as president of the Security Council. The Council lifted on Friday the sanctions slapped on Libya for the 1988 bombing. Photo by AFP
With 13 votes in favour and none against, the Security Council lifted UN sanctions on Libya, clearing the way for payments to begin to the families of the victims of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing of Pan Am flight 103. The United States and France abstained in the vote. The way for lifting the sanctions was opened a day earlier as Libya agreed a compensation deal with relatives of people killed in the 1989 bombing of a French airliner over the Sahara.