Libya Solution Imminent?

If Tony Blair and Nelson Mandela have indeed resolved the Lockerbie deadlock, Washington faces a problem -- how to contain Muammar Ghaddafi. The British and South African leaders on Friday expressed confidence that a discreet South African diplomatic mission would coax Ghaddafi into surrendering for trial two Libyan intelligence agents accused of bombing Pan Am flight 103 -- which would end 10 years of sanctions. “Ghaddafi’s refusal to cooperate gave the U.S. a reason to keep Libya boxed in,” says TIME U.N. correspondent William Dowell. “Those sanctions proved to be a critical factor in neutralizing one of the world’s most dangerous sponsors of terrorism.”

A Lockerbie breakthrough may be the enduring legacy of Blair’s South African trip, which has been shadowed by radical Islamic protests against the Iraq bombings and stern words from Mandela on the same issue. A trial in the Netherlands may bring closure to the Lockerbie families, but it will also end sanctions against Libya. And that will send Washington’s Libya policy wonks scurrying back to the drawing board.