December 22, 2003
Libya has agreed to allow snap UN nuclear arms inspections, just a day after declaring it was giving up plans to build an atomic bomb, a Western diplomat said yesterday. Libya, widely praised for announcing on Friday that it was ditching efforts to build the bomb and other banned weapons, told the head of the UN nuclear watchdog on Saturday it was ready to sign up to inspections, the diplomat told Reuters.
The surprise moves, which could lead to the end of US sanctions and the return of US oil companies, mark an about-face for Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi, Libyan leader for 34 years. "We are turning our swords into ploughshares and this step should be appreciated and followed by all other countries," Libyan prime minister, Shokri Ghanem, said of Friday's statement, adding that economic progress was more important than arms.
Tripoli acted swiftly to show it was serious. A top official met the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna on Saturday to discuss its proposals to accept stricter IAEA nuclear safeguards. The Vienna-based Western diplomat said Libya told Mohamed El Baradei it would open its atomic facilities to unannounced inspections, a deal going beyond the basic demands of the main nuclear arms control treaty.
Libya is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, allowing limited IAEA inspections, but said it was now willing to sign the treaty's additional protocol, which allows far more intrusive checks. Iran signed it on Thursday after pressure from Washington over an alleged arms programme. "The Libyans confirmed they want to sign the additional protocol in their meeting with El Baradei," said the diplomat. Libya's foreign minister, Mohamed Abderrhmane Chalgam, said in Algiers: "Our delegation is still in negotiations in Vienna."
The separate Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said Libya would have to adopt the Chemical Weapons Convention before inspections for such arms could be made. Libya was freed of broader UN sanctions this year after accepting responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing.
Washington left its sanctions in place, accusing Tripoli of seeking biological and chemical arms. Some US officials said at the weekend it was too early to say when, or if, the US would lift its embargo. Tripoli's announcement on Friday was the culmination of secret negotiations with Britain and the US launched at about the time of the Iraq invasion in March.
The US president, George Bush, said he hoped others would follow Col Gaddafi's example. The head of the Arab League said Israel, widely believed to have a nuclear weapons capability, should do the same as Libya.
Col Gaddafi was vilified by the US over the last two decades. In the 1980s, the US bombed Tripoli, killing Col Gaddafi's infant daughter, in retaliation for the bombing of a West Berlin nightclub frequented by US soldiers.
What the Officials Saw
• Nuclear Weapons
US officials said Libya's nuclear programme was "much further advanced" than previously thought while one British official said Libya was "close" to developing a nuclear bomb.
• Chemical Weapons
A senior US official said Libya had acknowledged a chemical weapons programme and showed the US-British teams "a significant quantity of mustard chemical agent" produced near Rabta more than a decade ago.
• Biological Weapons
British officials said a British team working with the Libyans had seen "dual-use" sites - civilian facilities with the potential to support work on biological weapons. A senior US official said Libya admitted to past intentions to acquire equipment and develop capabilities related to biological weapons
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