Libya, citing cost and liability concerns, has informed the United States of plans to back out of a contract to destroy its mustard gas stocks as promised under a landmark 2003 agreement, United States officials said.
The State Department played down the development and insisted Tripoli remains committed to getting rid of its chemical weapons agents.
But some officials and experts worry that a critical opportunity to destroy Libya’s remaining stocks — believed to include 23 metric tonnes of old mustard gas and 1 300 metric tonnes of precursor chemicals — could be lost.
”We can’t let this opportunity slip by,” said a US official, who like several others interviewed this week spoke anonymously because they were not authorised to speak on the record.
Under the 2003 agreement — hailed by the Bush administration as a major foreign policy success and a model for other countries — Libya promised to dismantle its weapons of mass destruction and long-range missile programmes.
Libya has already allowed the removal of more than 1 000 metric tonnes of critical nuclear and missile equipment as well as the destruction of 3 500 chemical-weapons capable munitions.
The remaining chemical agents were due to be destroyed this year.
In December 2006, the United States and Libya signed a contract to cooperate in carrying out the chemical destruction portion of the agreement. That contract would have Washington pay $45-million or about 75% of the destruction costs, a State Department official said.
But Libya recently sent the department a letter declaring its intention to withdraw from the contract on June 14, officials said.
Libya letter
The letter ”cites Libyan dissatisfaction with the US refusal to pay for the entire [chemical destruction] effort as well as unacceptable legal requirements raised during contract negotiations between the private contractor [hired to do the destruction work] and the Libyan government,” one official said.
Some officials and experts said they believe Libya is just trying to get more money out of the United States.
Others speculated that Tripoli had real concerns about some liability issues associated with the project, or that it wanted to avoid the kind of strict accountability that comes with having the US directly involved.
”The bottom line is, I don’t know what the Libyans are up to,” one US official said.
But another official told Reuters, ”I don’t think there is any question they will get rid of the chemical agent.”
One option would be to have Washington assume the full financing burden but US officials said they didn’t know if that would satisfy Libya or if the US budget could afford it.
In the past, Defence Department officials had expressed concern about spending the department’s limited threat reduction funds on such an expensive project, which involves construction of a special incinerator.
The chemical agents are stored in a remote desert location about 600km from Tripoli without easy access to the large quantities of water needed to demilitarise chemical stocks.
US officials said the stocks were reasonably secure and were more of an environmental hazard than a proliferation hazard.
”The United States believes our financial assistance and expertise can help to expedite the [chemical agents’] destruction and we will be working with Libya to address its concerns and play a role in the destruction effort,” a State Department official said.
A senior State Department official is expected to be in Vienna for unrelated talks shortly and could meet her Libyan counterpart there to discuss the chemical stockpile, officials said. – Reuters