LIBYA: INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY SAYS IT IS READY TO ASSIST LIBYA EXPAND IT'S PEACEFUL NUCLEAR PROGRAMME
Record ID:
647547
LIBYA: INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY SAYS IT IS READY TO ASSIST LIBYA EXPAND IT'S PEACEFUL NUCLEAR PROGRAMME
- Title: LIBYA: INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY SAYS IT IS READY TO ASSIST LIBYA EXPAND IT'S PEACEFUL NUCLEAR PROGRAMME
- Date: 24th February 2004
- Summary: (U4) TRIPOLI, LIBYA (FEBRUARY 24, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. PAN DOWN: EXTERIOR LIBYA FOREIGN MINISTRY 0.06 2. HEAD OF THE INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY (IAEA) MOHAMED ELBARADEI WALKING ALONG CORRIDOR 0.11 3. ELBARADEI ENTERS NEWS CONFERENCE ROOM 0.17 4. (SOUNDBITE) (English) ELBARADEI SAYING: "We are also discussing with Libya ways and means to expand Libya's programme into peaceful use. Libya is very much in need of nuclear technology in vital areas such as water dissemination, medical application, agriculture, industrial application and I agreed with Minister Chalgam and the Libyan officials that the agency would develop a feasibility study of potential use of nuclear energy in Libya and the agency - as part of our mandate, our charter - and we will actively assisting Libya not only to eliminate its military programme but expand its programme for civilians uses." 1.15 5. WOMAN IN AUDIENCE 1.16 6. (SOUNDBITE) (English) ELBARADEI SAYING "Libya is not alone in that field. We are getting again lots of good information from Iran, from many other countries who are also investigating the supply network. We are at a much better position to understand the network, how it moved, how it operated, the principle in that network and that is going to be very helpful for us not only in our work here in Libya but in other countries to understand who else got that technology, who else get this sensitivity drawings..." 1.52 7. WS: NEWS CONFERENCE ROOM 1.54 8. (SOUNDBITE) (English) LIBYAN FOREIGN MINISTER MOHAMED ABDERRHMANE CHALGAM SAYING "The little we said to the Security Council before the lifting of the sanctions regarding the resolution 731. We said exactly, I quote, what was written in the letter, Libya as an independent state, accept the responsibilities of the actions of its officials. We did not say we accepted responsibility of the bombing of PanAm (flight) because the resolution 731 said Libya should accept responsibility, that's why. And together with appropriate compensation. So, I said before is a package deal." 2.43 9. PEOPLE LEAVING NEWS CONFERENCE ROOM 2.46 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 10th March 2004 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: TRIPOLI, LIBYA
- Country: Libya
- Reuters ID: LVA5CVOW669J6Z7YZMOO8OYWAN2N
- Story Text: International Atomic Energy Agency ready to help
Libya as atom bomb focus shifts to Iran.
The United Nations nuclear watchdog is ready to
assist Libya, which has promised to abandon plans to
develop atomic weapons, expand its peaceful nuclear
programme.
Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA) , met Libyan Foreign Minister Mohamed
Abderrhmane Chalgam on Tuesday (February 24) in Tripoli to
discuss further disarmament steps before returning to IAEA
headquarters in Vienna.
After the meeting, ElBaradei said Libya had agreed to
the dismantling of a sensitive uranium conversion plant
and, as a goodwill gesture, to convert a research reactor
from weapons-grade highly enriched uranium to one using
low-enriched fuel.
His comments coincided with a newspaper report that
looked set to shift the focus of international atomic
scrutiny to Iran.
The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that IAEA
inspectors in Iran had found a substance, polonium, that
could be used to initiate a chain reaction for a nuclear
explosion. It said Iran had experimented with polonium
"some time ago".
Coupled with the recent discovery of designs,
components and a few fully assembled "P2" centrifuges,
which can be used to produce weapons-grade uranium, the
discovery of the polonium would appear to cast doubt on
Iran's statements that it had never sought nuclear weapons.
ElBaradei declined on Tuesday to comment on the report.
"We will actively assisting Libya not only to eliminate
its military programme but expand its programme for
civilians uses," he told a news conference before leaving
Libya, adding that the IAEA could help with desalination
and other peaceful applications of nuclear technology.
All the sensitive parts of Libya's nuclear weapons
programme had been removed, ElBaradei added, but there were
a few issues that need to be clarified.
The IAEA was awaiting the results of tests of
environmental samples to check Tripoli's statements about
the extent of its weapons-related activities, he said.
On Monday (February 23), he said he hoped the IAEA
could finish dismantling Tripoli's nuclear weapons
programme by June and urged countries suspected of having
similar projects, such as Iran and North Korea, to follow
in Libya's footsteps.
Libyan Foreign Minister Chalgam affirmed Libya wanted
to continue having a nuclear programme but one devoted
purely for peaceful purposes. He also said officials and
not the country, should accept responsibility for the
Lockerbie bombing of a PanAm flight, killing 270 people in
1988.
Several Western diplomats said Libya's openness with
the U.N. watchdog contrasts sharply with Tehran's reluctant
cooperation since an exiled opposition group broke the news
Iran was hiding a huge underground uranium-enrichment
facility at Natanz.
The IAEA will release a report on Iran's nuclear
programme this week. Diplomats said it would list numerous
failures by Iran to disclose sensitive nuclear technology
and research that could be related to a weapons programme.
The IAEA began inspections of Libya's nuclear programme
in December after Tripoli agreed to renounce its covert
nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programmes.
Last week the IAEA issued a report saying Libya had
begun trying to develop nuclear arms as far back as the
early 1980s, and the programme was much bigger than
previously thought.
Diplomats in Vienna have told Reuters that Iranian
officials have been lobbying envoys on the IAEA's governing
board, which meets on March 8 to discuss Iran and Libya,
to remove Tehran's nuclear programme from the agenda by
the board's June meeting.
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