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Iraq war did not force Libya to disarm, says former US minister

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

London, March 9, IRNA - Former US assistant secretary of state Martin 
Indyk Tuesday disputed claims that the war against Iraq forced Libya 
to abandon its weapons of mass destruction programmes. 
"In fact, Libyan representatives offered to surrender WMD 
programmes more than four years ago, in then-secret negotiations with 
US officials," said Inyk, who opened the talks. 
He said that their offer was officially conveyed to the US 
government in May 1999 "at the peak of the `12 years of diplomacy with
Iraq` that Mr Bush now disparages." 
In a renewed defence of the controversial war against Iraq last 
week, British Prime Minister Tony Blair suggested that the toppling of
Saddam Hussein`s regime played a vital part in Libya`s agreement to 
abandon its WMD programme. 
He also claimed that it played a role in Iran reaching an 
agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency and North Korea 
holding talks with China over its nuclear programme. 
But in an article for the Financial Times Tuesday, Indyk said that
US President George W Bush only "completed a diplomatic game plan" 
with Libya that was initiated by the Clinton Administration. 
The issue, he said, is "not credit" to whether Maummer Gadaffi 
gave up his WMD programmes because Saddam was toppled, as Bush has 
also claimed because "as the record shows, Libyan disarmament did not 
require a war in Iraq." 
HC/LS/211 
End