Libya Seeks Reward for Scrapping Banned Weapons Sat Dec 20,12:05 PM ET [Edit: So, Brain, you think this is just a nice coincidence?]
By Salah Sarrar
TRIPOLI (Reuters) - A pariah for decades, Libya asked on Saturday to come in from the cold after a surprise announcement that it was abandoning illicit weapons programs.
As the United States and Britain promised rewards, Tripoli acted swiftly to give proof of its commitment to the world at large. Libyan officials flew to Vienna for talks with the U.N. nuclear watchdog, an international diplomat told Reuters.
Almost 15 years to the day since his agents brought down a Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie and eight months after U.S. and British troops toppled Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) on suspicion of developing banned weapons, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi (news - web sites) has now opened the prospect of an end to sanctions and a return of U.S. oil firms.
Britain said Libya had been close to making an atomic bomb. Details of Tripoli's weapons capabilities were vague.
Some U.S. officials cautioned that Libya's move on arms, the culmination of secret talks with London and Washington launched around the time of the Iraq (news - web sites) invasion and concluded a week after U.S. forces captured Saddam, still left it too early to say when, or if, Washington will lift sanctions.
Britain suggested the Iraqi leader's fate could have been different if he had cooperated. President Bush (news - web sites), who also accuses Iran and North Korea (news - web sites) of seeking nuclear arms, said he hoped others would follow the example set by Gaddafi, a man one of Bush's predecessors called a "mad dog."
European critics of the invasion of Iraq remarked pointedly that it showed peaceful diplomacy could bring about disarmament.
"Libya wants to solve all problems and we want to focus on development and advancing our country. This (weapons) program does not benefit our people or country," Foreign Minister Mohamed Abderrhmane Chalgam told Al-Jazeera television.
"We want to have ties with America and Britain because this is in the interest of our people," Chalgam said.
Libyan officials were flying to Vienna for talks on Tripoli's nuclear program with the International Atomic Energy Agency on Saturday, an international diplomat said. Libya said on Friday it was ready to accept strict IAEA nuclear safeguards.
The head of Arab League said Israel, widely believed to have a nuclear weapons capability, should do the same as Libya.
PRAISE FOR GADDAFI
Libya's move came ahead of Sunday's anniversary of the Christmas 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Scotland that killed 270 people. British relatives of the victims welcomed the news that dialogue had brought disarmament, Tripoli's second dramatic step this year to rejoin the international community.
Libya was freed of broader U.N. sanctions this year after accepting responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing (news - web sites) and paying billions to victims' families. Washington left its sanctions in place, alleging Tripoli sought biological and chemical weapons.
U.S. warplanes bombed Tripoli in 1986 after the bombing of a West Berlin nightclub frequented by American soldiers. The U.S. attack hit Gaddafi's home, killing his adopted infant daughter.
Washington bans most economic activity and bars visits to Libya using U.S. passports without U.S. government permission.
Echoing London and Washington, Russia, France and Germany -- opponents of the Iraq war -- praised Gaddafi, whom U.S. President Ronald Reagan (news - web sites) once called a "mad dog."
"He needs to be applauded in unqualified terms for what he has done. I believe it is very statesmanlike and courageous," British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told BBC radio on Saturday.
"If Saddam had come to us a year ago or more...then the situation in Iraq would have been a very different one."
Gaddafi's son, Saif al-Islam, said the Iraq war had nothing to do with the timing of Libya's negotiations. "We started the cooperation before even the invasion of Iraq," he told CNN.
But he added: "It's a critical deal for Libya, because first of all we will get access to defensive weapons and no sanctions on Libyan arms imports any more. We will get access to the know-how and technology in sectors which were banned."
While praising Gaddafi, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin urged Libya to "implement without delay" compensation for families of victims of a 1989 bombing of a French airliner.
BUSH, BLAIR DELIGHTED
U.S. officials said Libya's nuclear program was "much further advanced" than thought and it acknowledged cooperating with North Korea to develop long-range Scud missiles.
Libya said its move showed commitment to "building a world free of weapons of mass destruction and all sorts of terrorism."
Bush immediately praised Libya, saying: "Its good faith will be returned." He said Tripoli's progress would be monitored.
"Today's announcement shows that we can fight this menace through more than purely military means; that we can defeat it peacefully," said British Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites).
Bush added: "I hope that other leaders will find an example in Libya's announcement today."
But a senior U.S. official cautioned: "We are at the start. The Libyans want to work with the United States, but we take it one step at a time...We're not at the point of discussing how this affects the sanctions regime."
Lifting sanctions could allow U.S. oil companies back into Libya, where they once produced more than one million barrels per day (bpd) and where oil facilities could reach two million bpd within five years, the U.S. Energy Department says.
U.S. sanctions dating from 1982 and strengthened in 1986, ban the import of Libyan crude oil, as well as direct trade and commercial contracts, and keep U.S. firms out of Libya. (Additional reporting by Louis Charbonneau in Vienna; Heba Kandil in Dubai and Bernard Woodall in New York)
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