27 February 2004
State Department Officials Optimistic About Libya's Sincerity
Burns and DeSutter expect Libya to proceed with elimination of WMD
By Stephen Kaufman
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- In testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, State Department officials said that in pledging to forsake terrorism and weapons of mass destruction (WMD), Libya has made a choice for improved relations with the United States and the international community.
Assistant Secretary of State for Verification and Compliance Paula DeSutter told the February 26 committee hearing that "the success of Libya is a ray of light in the otherwise dark world of the WMD black market."
Libya has granted American officials access to its facilities since it announced on December 19, 2003, that it was abandoning its pursuit of WMD, and more than 55,000 pounds of sensitive Libyan equipment and documents have since been transported to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the U.S. state of Tennessee.
"I haven't had much of a chance to sit back and ponder these momentous changes, but I would have been amazed three months ago if someone had told me that much of the most sensitive Libyan nuclear material was in Tennessee and not in Tripoli," said DeSutter.
She voiced her confidence that Libya is truly dedicated to fulfilling the commitments it made on December 19.
"As an example of the dramatic turn of events, three months ago our chemical experts in Washington were analyzing what the chemical weapons facility at Rabta might contain. These same experts are now walking freely through Rabta," she said.
Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs William Burns said U.S. relations with Libya are being guided by two main principles.
"First, Libyan action, not promises or an artificial timeline, will drive U.S. policy. Second, any evidence of Libyan backtracking on its commitments will result in a reevaluation of our bilateral engagement," he said.
He also said political, economic, and human rights reforms, as well a willingness on the part of Libya to play a constructive regional role, will help to shape a more normal relationship with the United States.
With greater diplomatic engagement required, said Burns, the Bush administration expects to notify Congress in the near future of its intention to establish a "free-standing liaison office." The office, while not at the same level as an embassy, will allow the United States to conduct a greater volume of business directly with Libyan authorities, he said.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar (Republican from Indiana) said initial reports by the International Atomic Energy Agency and American officials "suggest that Libya is granting extraordinary access to its weapons programs."
"[I]nternational authorities found out as much about Libya's weapons programs in two weeks as they did about Iran's program in two years," he said, but he cautioned that the United States cannot yet assume that Libya is "committed absolutely to a responsible course," nor ignore its lack of democracy and its previous support for terrorism and quest for WMD.
However, Lugar repeated President Bush's call for Libyan good faith to be returned, and called for "performance benchmarks" to guide U.S. policy. "We need to assess the effectiveness of each of our sanctions policies and ask what action should be required of Libya before a particular sanction is lifted," he said.
Similarly, Senator Joseph Biden (Democrat from Delaware), said the United States needs to "add carrots to our sticks" when dealing with Libya and other states possessing or developing WMD.
"[W]e have to continue to make clear all that they stand to lose by seeking WMD, supporting terror and spreading instability, and bang that case home. But we also have to overcome our bizarre fear of spelling out in detail what they might gain if in fact these rogue states change their minds," he said.
Burns agreed, saying, "it's important for the Libyan people ... to see that benefits can result from making the right choices."
He said the United States was sending a team of experts to look at ways to assist Libya's health care system, including how to deal with infectious diseases such as trachoma.
"[W]e have tried to be very clear and transparent in highlighting not only the steps that the Libyan leadership is taking on terrorism and WMD, but also the kinds of things that we're doing in return," he said, and noted that President Bush's February 26 announcement lifting the U.S. travel ban on Libya and allowing enhanced diplomatic and commercial ties, as well as greater citizen exchanges, "is a first tangible step in that direction."
However, Senator Biden said that in order to ultimately achieve the prosperity it is looking for, "Libya is going to have to embrace the principles of liberal democracy, secular education, representative government, a transparent economy, a free press and a strong civil society, and that's going to take a long time."
Assistant Secretary DeSutter said Libya's cooperation so far has been "absolutely amazing," and that it stood in stark contrast to North Korea's and Iran's refusal to give up their nuclear weapons programs.
When asked to speculate as to why Libya had decided to abandon its support of terrorism and WMD, Burns said several factors, including U.S. resolve and sanctions "began to drive home to the Libyan leadership that its isolation was setting it further and further back economically, socially and many other ways."
"We made very clear, on the margins of the Lockerbie negotiations, the weapons of mass destruction were a very big concern for the United States and would be a very big obstacle in the path to moving ahead to ease those bilateral sanctions," he said.
Hopefully, said Burns, Libya's improved relations with the United States "will have an impact on the calculations of other countries in the region."
"There's no one-size-fits-all solution, but I think it's a very important opportunity for the United States to show that this path can be a successful one, not just for us, but for Libyans and potentially for others in the region and around the world," he said.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
This page printed from: http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2004&m=February&x=20040227180130ESnamfuaK0.7674066&t=livefeeds/wf-latest.html
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
