libya to give up WMD

[C0ckney]

frombbc

Libya 'to give up WMD'

Libya's leader Colonel Gaddafi has said his country sought to develop weapons of mass destruction capabilities but will dismantle this programme completely, Prime Minister Tony Blair has announced.
"This decision is an historic one and a courageous one and I applaud it," Mr Blair said.

Colonel Gaddafi had told him the process of dismantling the programme would be "transparent and verifiable", the prime minister said in a statement from Durham Cathedral.

The range of all Libya's missiles would be restricted to "no more then 300km, he added.

Mr Blair said Britain had been engaged in talks with Libya for nine months.

"Libya came to us in March following successful negotiations on Lockerbie to see if it could resolve its weapons of mass destruction issue in a similarly cooperative manner," he said.

nice to see quiet british diplomacy at work here

[C0ckney]

d'oh, someone else just posted this too

[Japher]

uuuuuuuugggggggg, I don't know where to post... I am actually very confused..

[Japher]

nice to see quiet british diplomacy at work here

Was it that or the fact the sound of bombs exploding in the distance whipped some sense into them?

[C0ckney]

it probably didn't hurt

these negociations have been going on, on the quiet for a while (as the article says). i'm sure the iraq war helped push libya in the right direction, i doubt gaddafi wants to end up sharing a 6 by 8 hole with rats and beetles.

[Sprayber]

Is hell freezing over or something. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

[Sprayber]

So which was it that turned them. The carrot or the stick.

[RGBVideo]

The other thread was posted first and it's title looks more polished. Why don't we keep that up with our replies?

[C0ckney]

Originally posted by Sprayber
So which was it that turned them. The carrot or the stick.

libya has been trying for a long time to re-enter the international community, this is part (or perhaps the completion) of that process. incidentally we also an agreement with libya today on 'cultural ties'.

i think this helps to spell out for countries like this in the region the choice they have. they can either be like libya, give up on WMD and re-enter the international community, with the benefits to trade and the like which come with it. or they can be like iraq was...

[RGBVideo]

or they can be like iraq was...

Let the weapons instructors in, give up all their weapons which could be even remotely considered as WMD's, and then, stripped out of all defending power, get attacked by US forces?

[C0ckney]

if i remember correctly iraq wasn't wholly co-operative with the UN inspectors

[Sprayber]

Originally posted by Tuomerehu

Let the weapons instructors in, give up all their weapons which could be even remotely considered as WMD's, and then, stripped out of all defending power, get attacked by US forces?

Why would we have to attack when a nation is cooperating. If Iraq had let inspectors have UNLIMITED access then Saddam would still be living in Baghdad. Maybe Gaddafi is just smarter than Saddam. After all Saddam is in US military custody and Gaddafi has been praised my Bush and Blair.

[Ned]

I hope this helps Blair restore some of his popularity with the British people.

[Agathon]

Originally posted by C0ckney
if i remember correctly iraq wasn't wholly co-operative with the UN inspectors

IIRC that's because the US was using them to spy on Iraq.