Libya To End Business With Western Firms

Libya will stop doing business with Western companies because politics is interfering with trade, leader Moammar Gadhafi said Wednesday.

Instead Libya will look to the East for supplies, Gadhafi said, noting Tripoli’s plans to buy 25 passenger planes and build a 600-mile railroad.

“We will buy them from India, China, Russia and Japan because every time there is a political dispute with the Western countries, their companies stop sending spare parts,” the 54-year-old Libyan leader said.

Many Western companies, including some U.S. ones, are still doing business with Libya, especially in the oil sector.

Gadhafi made his comments at a news conference following a national commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the U.S. bombing of the capital Tripoli and port city of Benghazi.

Then-President Reagan sent American jets raiding on the night of April 14-15, 1986, after accusing Libya of sponsoring international terrorism.

The news conference was held in the ruins of Gadhafi’s Tripoli home, which has been maintained as a memorial to the attack. Libya said the raids killed 37 people, including an adopted daughter of Gadhafi.