LIBYA GIVES UP WMD
President Bush is making a speech on this agreement as I type. More to follow.
Update (1741): AP has this:
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi confirmed that his country sought to develop weapons of mass destruction but plans to dismantle all such programs immediately, Prime Minister Tony Blair said Friday.
Britain and the United States have been talking with Libya for nine months, Blair said.
“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,” Blair said in the northern city of Durham.
“Libya has now declared its intent to dismantle its weapons of mass destruction completely and to limit the range of Libyan missiles to no greater than 300 kilometers (187.5 miles).”
Very interesting.
The President’s speech on this was pretty impressive: We’ve engaged, aong with the Brits and others, in nine months of what Bush called “quiet diplomacy” with Gadhafi. It appears we’ve extracted a workable inspection regime in exchange for gradually eased sanctions and improved relations. The speech made it clear that Iran and others could benefit from cooperating in a similar manner.
It’s a bit early in the process to get too excited by this, but this combined with the recent turnabouts of France and Germany on Iraq War cooperation are encouraging. Could it be that the “you’re either with us or you’re against us” line is actually having positive results?
Update (2224): Kathy Kinsley has the links to the speech and several other sources.
We’ve engaged, aong (sic) with the Brits and others, in nine months of what Bush called “quiet diplomacy” with Gadhafi.
May it be so noted that Moammar Gadhafi is now a far more reasonable negotiating partner than Jacque Chirac.
I think that says it all.
Paul
…and we’d be remiss if we did not give credit for the assist to Ronald Reagan.