The Senate has confirmed the nomination of career diplomat Gene Cretz as the first US ambassador to Libya in 36 years, the State Department said Friday. Cretz's confirmation by the Senate comes after the United States and Libya cleared the last hurdle to a full normalisation of ties with Tripoli in the last few weeks compensating US victims of terrorist attacks in the 1980s.
"Done deal. Confirmed," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters, adding that the confirmation occurred late Thursday. "We're very pleased." Cretz's appointment by US President George W. Bush had been held up over the compensation issue. The last US ambassador left Tripoli on November 7, 1972 "because of Libya's support for international terrorism and its subversion of moderate Arab and African governments," the State Department said.
McCormack did not say when Cretz would leave for his post, but acknowledged it could be a short assignment because the new administration of president-elect Barack Obama makes its own appointments. The compensation settlement, which has also cleared the way for the Senate to free up the funds for a new embassy there, caps what US diplomats say is a nearly five-year "historic transformation" for Libya.
After being severed in 1981, US-Libyan relations were restored in early 2004 a few weeks after Libyan leader, Colonel Moamer Kadhafi, announced Tripoli was abandoning efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction. In 2006, the United States announced a full normalisation of ties, dropping Libya from a State Department list of state sponsors of terrorism and raising diplomatic relations to the level of ambassadors.