By Louis Charbonneau
Vienna - United Nations nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed el-Baradei said on Monday he had agreed with senior United States and British officials that his agency would oversee the dismantling of Libya's atomic arms programme by US and British experts.
Diplomats said el-Baradei had received assurances that the UN agency, squeezed out of Iraq by the United States and out of North Korea when Pyongyang expelled its inspectors in 2002, would play a leading role in Libya.
"I think we have an agreement on what needs to be done. The agency's role is very clear. We need to do the verification," El-Baradei told reporters outside the US mission to the United Nations in Vienna. "I think we reached a very good agreement."
Continues Below ↓
| 'I think we have an agreement' |
El-Baradei, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief, made the comments after a three-hour meeting with John Bolton, the US undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, and his British counterpart, William Ehrman.
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi on December 19 pledged to abandon efforts to acquire nuclear, chemical and biological weapons in a surprise deal with old adversaries Washington and London.
Western diplomats said the meeting appeared to have ended in a deal that would satisfy the United Nations, Washington and London.
The IAEA, Britain and the United States reached the accord despite a recent public disagreement over the scope of Libya's nuclear program, with the IAEA concluding the North African country was years away from producing a weapon while London and Washington suggested it was close to doing so.
El-Baradei said the key aspects of the deal were that the IAEA would verify that Libya's atomic program has been properly dismantled while US and British experts handled the work of physically destroying Libya's nuclear capabilities.
| 'We clearly need British and American support' |
"We clearly need British and American support with logistics and I think the meeting was trying to co-ordinate our co-operation," he said. "We are trying to move fast. It's important that we move fast."
Bolton echoed el-Baradei's upbeat description, telling reporters before he left Vienna: "It was a very constructive meeting. I think we're all on the same page with the IAEA."
A US official said that, under the agreement discussed on Monday, the IAEA would observe and account for the removal of nuclear materials from Libya, could observe the unsealing of materials in Libya and reseal them itself, and would have full access to the materials once they are removed from Libya.
The official, who asked not to be identified, would not say when the materials would be removed or where they would go but he said that once Libya allowed them to be taken away, Washington could quickly improve ties with Tripoli.
"If we see significant progress in the near term we will swiftly reciprocate with the Libyans," said the US official. "This could be a win-win solution for the United States and Libya. So far, we have seen nothing but encouraging signs but this will be a crucial period where we will find out: are the Libyans going to let us take this material out?"
Libya's August admission of responsibility for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing and its promise to abandon weapons of mass destruction has set the stage for a possible end to US economic sanctions and even the reopening of a US Embassy.
Lifting sanctions would allow US oil companies, including the Oasis Group that includes Marathon Oil, Amerada Hess and ConocoPhillips, to resume work in Libya they abandoned when sanctions forced them out in 1986.
|
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Digg
Delicious
Newsvine
Facebook
muti
Twitter
