Substantiating its promise to the West, Libya has begun the journey to complete disarmament of its nuclear weapons program. The first Libyan nuclear material arrived in the United States on January 27 with the landing of a cargo plane in Knoxville. Scientists are proceeding with examination and destruction of the items. The plane, now back in Libya, is scheduled to arrive with more condemned materials later this month.
Libya’s internal push to dismantle its nuclear weapons, which compose a major component of the weapons of mass destruction umbrella, was publicly breached on December 19, 2003. Ever since, senior levels of the United States and Libyan governments, along with the United Kingdom, France, and other United Nations members have lent their efforts. The Libyan head, Moammar Gadhafi, has spearheaded much of the progress made over the last two months. With a “statesman-like and courageous” persona, according to United Kingdom Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, Gadhafi and his son, Saif-al-Islam Gadhafi, have led Libya’s government and people in support and enforcement of the disarmament resolution. The elder Gadhafi was quoted as desiring to build “a world free of weapons of mass destruction and all sorts of terrorism,” and has, thus far, backed his words with action.
The United States, in response to such cooperation, has considered rewarding Libya with possible high-level official visits, a renewed diplomatic presence in Tripoli, and the easing of certain sanctions, such as a ban on United States passports and currency. Washington has also expressed interest of the eventual return of American oil companies, who, at one point, produced in excess of one million barrels per day in Libyan fields. According to the United States Department of Energy, technological enhancements could increase that yield to two million barrels per day within five years. Libya, too, has focused on possible long-term benefits, such as unimpeded access to defense armaments, the removal of all economic sanctions, increased technology and freedom to study previously blocked sciences, and the restoration of diplomatic relations with not only the United States, but the West as a whole. Tripoli would also very much like to see its name removed from President Bush’s State Sponsors of Terrorism List, which would follow a re-establishing of formal ties between the two nations.
Mohammed ElBaradei, the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), currently holds American trust to oversee the dismantling. An American Congressional diplomatic delegation, consisting of Representative Tom Lantos (D-CA) and Representative Curt Weldon (R-PA) has already visited Libya and continues to stand as liaison between Tripoli and Washington. While Libya has drawn unanimous international support for its commitment, it has also provided a ground for the renewing of old damage claims, perhaps found most clearly in France’s demands for compensations for the 170 victims bombed in a UTA flight over Niger in 1989. As Libya continues to prove itself faithful, the United States will take appropriate compensatory action. President Bush, confident in its abilities, stated recently that all inspectors would “enter an accounting of all nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons programs [in order to] help oversee their elimination.”
Current findings indicate that Libya’s capabilities lay well beyond the United States’ estimations. Whereas American officials could only speculate about Libya’s incomplete knowledge of nuclear weapons, the first round of dismantling has shown that Libya clearly possessed all fundamental materials to complete construction of a bomb within the near future.
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