Lib ‧ y ‧ a /ˈlɪbiə/ BrE AmE
an oil-producing country in North Africa on the Mediterranean Sea. Population: 6,173,579 (2007). Capital: Tripoli. Colonel Gaddafi became leader in 1969 and introduced a new political and economic system that was based on Islam, and which was different from both ↑ communism and ↑ capitalism . For many years the relationship between Libya and the West was not very good. In 1986 the US bombed Libya, and two men from Libya were blamed when a US plane exploded over Lockerbie in Scotland in 1988. More recently, Libya has improved its relationship with the West. In 2003 it admitted that it was responsible for Lockerbie and announced that it did not intend to develop ↑ weapons of mass destruction . In the same year the UN voted to stop the ↑ sanction s against Libya which it had introduced in 1992.
—Libyan noun , adjective