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Libya wanted IRA to attack Britain in return for arms

DECLASSIFIED US diplomatic cables have revealed that Libyan officials told authorities in Ireland that its support for the IRA in the 1980s was conditional on the organisation attacking Britain.

The previously secret cables were recently released by the US State Department.

In 1984 Colonel Muammar Gadaffi said Libya would supply the IRA with weapons in retaliation for the closure of the country's embassy in London after the PC Yvonne Fletcher was shot dead during a protest outside the building in 1984.

A cable subsequently sent from the US embassy in Dublin to the State Department confirmed that the Irish government was concerned by the arms development.

The cable also said: "Libyan authorities have assured Dublin that the British and not the Irish are the intended target."

The message, which was sent ahead of a visit to the UK by president Ronald Regan warned US authorities they "should be aware of the [Libyan] community's existence [in Dublin] and the possibility of new links between Tripoli and Ireland's indigenous nasties".

The communication also pointed out that Ireland had extensive trade links with Libya and that the Irish ambassador to Rome, Eamon Kennedy, had contacted the Libyans to point out that any support for the IRA would be viewed with "alarm" as the IRA were "as much an enemy of Ireland as of the UK".

The Libyan response expressed the "value that Tripoli placed upon their bilateral trade and [to state] bluntly that aid to the IRA would be aimed at Britain and not Ireland".

According to a report in the Sunday Times the Libyan reply ended with a line that "particularly puzzled" Mr Kennedy suggesting it would "do nothing to harm Ireland for some time to come".

Mr Kennedy's report on the episode ended with the "cold comfort phrase, 'if not now, then when?'"

The US documents also say that the Irish wanted to keep a close eye on the Libyan community in Ireland.

The US report also noted that the Irish trade deal with Libya was important to the country.

A cable sent in April 1986 reveals that US authorities were keen to know if an IRA arms dump discovered in Sligo contained any weapons supplied by Libya.

The recently released documents also reveal that US authorities were being passed information about a failed attempt by the IRA to smuggle weapons from Libya on board the Eksund in October 1987.

The boat, which was loaded with 150 tonnes of weapons and explosives, was intercepted by French authorities.

Cables show the Americans received secret briefings from Jean-Louis Bruguière, the French magistrate who was investigating the Eksund affair.

He claimed that although the crew said the cargo was to be transferred to other vessels at sea, it was his belief that it was so large it would have to be unloaded at a port.

In a cable sent in October 1989 it was claimed by Mr Bruguière, who had regular meetings with US authorities, that Gadaffi had "extracted a promise from the IRA to attack British targets outside the UK".