U.S., U.K. Reach Deal With IAEA on Libya
From
Yahoo/AP comes some good news:
bq. The U.N. atomic watchdog agency will verify the scope and content of Libya's nuclear program, and U.S. and British experts will remove suspect materials from the North African country under an agreement reached Monday.
bq. The agreement — hammered out by International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei, U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton and William Ehrman, a top British disarmament expert — appeared to settle a dispute over who should be in charge of scrapping Tripoli's weapons programs.
bq. The United States had pressed to supervise the process and destroy any materials capable of being used in a weapon, while the IAEA had contended it should have sole responsibility for the mission.
And more:
bq. The IAEA has said Libya was nowhere near producing a weapon, while Washington and London contended it was further along than the agency realizes.
Somehow, I would put my money on the US and UK for accurate analysis...
bq. ElBaradei called the meeting "very constructive," adding: "I think it went very well.
So how does crow taste - like chicken???
bq. Libya recently ratified the nuclear test ban treaty and next month will become a party to the convention prohibiting chemical weapons. Once it gets sufficient support worldwide to enter into force, the test ban treaty bans any nuclear weapon test explosion in any environment.
Very cool for Libya - Gadhafi's son is pro-west and educated. It will be interesting to see where that country is in 20 years...
Posted by DaveH at January 19, 2004 9:17 AM