# Condoleezza Rice Visits Tripoli (2008)

URL: https://allhistories.com/libya/timeline/2008-condoleezza-rice-visits-tripoli
Location: Tripoli, Libya
Themes: main-event

Although full diplomatic relations had been restored in 2006, US–Libyan relations remained clouded by outstanding compensation claims, including the final tranche of Lockerbie payments and claims from victims of the La Belle bombing and other attacks, and by Libyan claims for the victims of the 1986 air raids. In August 2008 the US Congress passed the Libyan Claims Resolution Act, and on 14 August the two governments signed a Comprehensive Claims Settlement Agreement creating a 1.5-billion-dollar fund to settle the remaining claims on both sides, in exchange for immunity for Libya from further lawsuits. On 5 September 2008 Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Tripoli, the first visit by an American secretary of state since John Foster Dulles in 1953. She met Gaddafi in the evening — breaking the Ramadan fast with him — at his residence in the Bab al-Azizia compound, the site bombed by the US in 1986. Rice described the visit as historic, saying it showed that the United States did not have permanent enemies, while emphasising concerns about human rights. Libya paid the full 1.5 billion dollars into the fund in October 2008, and President George W. Bush restored Libya's immunity from terrorism-related lawsuits. The visit was the high point of US–Libyan rapprochement; two and a half years later, Washington would back the NATO campaign against Gaddafi. At this point in the timeline (5 September 2008), the Brotherly Leader and Guide of the Revolution was Muammar Gaddafi (2 March 1979 – 20 October 2011); the Secretary-General of the General People's Congress was Miftah Muhammed K'eba (3 March 2008 – 5 March 2009). Government: the Secretary of the General People's Committee of Libya was Baghdadi Mahmudi (5 March 2006 – 23 August 2011).

## Why it matters
Rice's visit and the claims settlement closed the legal legacy of decades of confrontation between Libya and the United States.

Ruler at the Time: [Muammar Gaddafi](https://allhistories.com/libya/rulers/muammar-gaddafi)

Secretary-General of the General People's Congress: Miftah Muhammed K'eba (Independent (Jamahiriya))
Secretary of the General People's Committee of Libya: Baghdadi Mahmudi (Non-partisan (Jamahiriya system))

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — Condoleezza Rice](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condoleezza_Rice)
- [Wikipedia — Libya–United States relations](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libya%E2%80%93United_States_relations)
- [Office of the Historian, US State Department](https://history.state.gov/countries/libya)
- [Wikipedia — The Gaddafi Era (period overview)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libya_under_Muammar_Gaddafi)