TRIPOLI
(Reuters) - Libya and
the United States have yet to agree how a U.S. investigative
team will cooperate in a probe into a deadly attack on the U.S. diplomatic
mission in Benghazi, a senior Libyan official said on
Tuesday.
FBI agents
were sent to Libya after the September 11 attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission
and another facility in which the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans
died. So far they have conducted interviews in Tripoli and have yet to go to
Benghazi.
Deputy
Foreign Minister Mohammed Abdel Aziz said
the prosecutor general had given only verbal approval for a joint
investigation.
"We are
getting ready for the FBI team to go to Benghazi and meet with our team and
start joint investigations together and also visit the site," he said.
"The
FBI team is now in Tripoli. There are others who will come maybe soon to join
the team ... Hopefully in the coming days we will reach an agreement as to how
the (U.S.) team will work with the Libyan team ... We are now in the context of
(awaiting) written permission."
Abdel Aziz
was speaking after meeting U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern
Affairs Elizabeth Jones in Tripoli. "It is the right of the United States
to be involved, exchange information and investigate what happened in
Benghazi," Abdel Aziz said.
State
Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland sidestepped the question of whether an
agreement had been reached with Libya, but said: "We have a commitment
from the Libyan government to work together. There has been cooperation at the
political level. There has to now be cooperation at the investigative
level."
She said in
State Department contacts with the FBI on Tuesday, "they expressed
confidence that they'll be able to work well with the Libyans."
An FBI
spokesman in Washington would only say that the investigation into the Benghazi
attack was continuing, but would not comment on where the agents in Libya were
located.
A U.S.
lawmaker said security was a factor as to why the FBI team had yet not gone to
Benghazi.
"Part
of it was security posture, who was going to perform the security was part of it,"
House intelligence committee Chairman Mike Rogers told Reuters. "What
worries me is that crime scene is so stale now and been well-trampled."
The head of
Libya's Supreme Court, Kamal Dahan, who also met Jones on Tuesday, told
reporters the two countries would cooperate but that Libya would lead the
probe. Jones also met Prime Minister-elect Mustafa Abushagur.
The Obama
administration has described the assault as a terrorist attack and announced a
panel to investigate the events. Its work is separate from the FBI probe.
Libyan
officials say eight people have been arrested so far in connection with the
attack.
(Reporting
by Ali Shuaib; Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed and Tabassum Zakaria in
Washington; Editing by Robin Pomeroy and Stacey Joyce)
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