29Dec03-Patrick E. Tyler - Libya's Nuclear Program Mostly Dismantled, U.N. Inspector Says
By PATRICK E. TYLER
Published: December 29, 2003
LONDON, Dec. 29 — The United Nations top nuclear inspector, Mohamed ElBaradei, said today that Libya's nuclear program was years away from producing a nuclear weapon and was largely dismantled.
But Dr. ElBaradei, who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency, nonetheless expressed surprise that Libya had acquired a great deal of high-technology equipment needed to enrich uranium for use in nuclear bombs through black market transactions that have yet to be disclosed.
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"What we have seen is a program in the very initial stages of development," Dr. ElBaradei told reporters at a news conference in Tripoli. "We haven't seen any industrial-scale facility to produce highly enriched uranium, we haven't seen any enriched uranium," he added.
Dr. ElBaradei, who also met with the Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qadaffi, for about half an hour, said that it was his "gut feeling" that Libya was three to seven years away from producing a nuclear weapon and added, "we are now working with them to neutralize any activities, any programs that could have led to a nuclear weapon."
Still, he added, it was "an eye opener to see how much material has been going from one country to the other, the extent of the black market network." The existence of this shadowy network of middlemen who often circumvent national export controls, he said, proved that those controls were not working.
The visit by the international team of inspectors led by Dr. ElBaradei was arranged hastily in the wake of the dramatic Dec. 19 announcement by Col. Qadaffi that in order to reach a new accord with the West, his country would disclose and dismantle its programs aimed at developing nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
The announcement followed nine months of intensive negotiations with British and American officials, and secret visits to Libya in October and early December by experts from the British secret service and the United States Central Intelligence Agency..
President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair both praised Col. Qadaffi's decision, and Mr. Bush hinted that a full disarmament process in Libya could be followed by the lifting of sanctions and the normalization of relations. These steps, which Congress would have to approve, once seemed inconceivable after decades of vilification and recriminations over Libya's support for terrorism.
Dr. ElBaradei's description of the Libyan nuclear program appeared more modest and less alarming than the descriptions given by Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair when they revealed that nine months of secret diplomacy had led to a breakthrough with Libya.
Dr. ElBaradei said most of Libya's illicit nuclear equipment was "quite dismantled" and still packed in boxes.
"Luckily, I think, we are here when they have not developed a full fledged capability and luckily also they have announced that they are ready to eliminate all programs relevant to weapons of mass destruction," Dr. ElBaradei said.
At the same time today, he took the opportunity to call on North Korea to follow Libya's example.
"If a country was to show transparency and active cooperation, that can open the doors" and allow for "a complete change of face," he said, adding: "It is a lesson for North Korea to observe."
nytimes.com |
