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Libya’s troubled relationship with the West
KENNY COYLE explores the political landscape surrounding the notorious Lockerbie bombing of Pan Am flight 103, which took place 30 years ago today
Former PM ony Blair (left) and Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi shake hands as Blair prepares to depart from Gaddafi's desert base near Sirte, Libya, in May 2007

LONG before the Lockerbie bombing, Libya’s relationship with the West was based on conflict. 

Libyan leader Muammar Gadaffi’s maverick politics of an “Islamic socialism,” outlined in his Green Book, was meant to steer a third way between the imperialist West and communist East. 

Yet, for most of the ’70s and ’80s, Libya maintained closer relations with the Soviet Union than with Washington or London. 

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