Coming clean
By
Salama A Salama
Libya's announcement that it is giving up its weapons of mass destruction (WMD) was greeted with levels of joy in the US and UK that are hardly commensurate with whatever weaponry Libya could possibly possess. The move was portrayed as one of submission, as if Libya was a naughty boy who has suddenly reformed. The naughty boy, mind you, is coughing up billions of dollars in compensation over the Lockerbie affair.
The Libyan announcement was no surprise except, perhaps, to the Libyan people. Negotiations have been underway between Libya, the US and Britain for nine months; i.e. since the US invaded Iraq and their outcome became obvious the moment Saddam was caught. Libya's announcement that it is scrapping the weapons of mass destruction it does not possess is a trophy President Bush will be waving during his election campaign, one more sign that America's domination of the Middle East is proceeding as planned.
What makes the affair particularly insipid is that Libya has never developed or produced WMD. All the Libyans had were chemical and biological research programmes that, if allowed to continue, might at some distant time in the future have produced results. Considering current international conditions, and the strict implementation of sanctions that have been in place for years, whatever programmes Libya might have been pursuing are worthless. Aside from a site in Al-Rabita that once produced chemical weapons but that was converted, under pressure, into a pharmaceutical plant, and another in Tarhuna that had centrifugal equipment possibly of use in nuclear programmes, there is not a shred of evidence to suggest Libya was remotely near developing WMD.
Over the past few months, during which Libya had permitted inspections by US and UK intelligence teams, no banned weapons or experts busy in underground laboratories have been found. Limited amounts of mustard and sarine gasses were discovered, together with a small number of SCUD missiles obtained from North Korea.
The satisfaction with which President Bush greeted the Libyan announcement suggests that Washington is already in possession of whatever there is to tell and is now perfectly assured that Saddam Hussein did not smuggle WMD to Libya.
What made Libya engage in this bizarre series of events that was a year in the planning? Obviously the Libyan leadership has recently realised that its conflict with the West could lead it down a similar road to that taken by Iraq.
This is the conclusion the Libyan leadership has reached after 30 years during which the Libyan people have been subjected to sanctions and suffered enormous economic losses. The move is not in defence of the Arab cause, as the Libyan prime minister would have us believe. The move was just another sign of Libya's tendency to act alone -- and erratically -- without taking the Arab consensus into account.
The focus should not be on avoiding confrontation with the West but on pursuing balanced policies. One can avoid demagoguery while refusing to give up legitimate rights.
Those who expect the Libyan move to lead to Israel's abandonment of its nuclear arsenal will be disappointed. Israel will never give up its nuclear arms. A far more likely outcome is that yet more pressure will be applied on those Arab countries still opposed to joining the ban on chemical weapons. The latter weapons, one would think, are much less hazardous than Israel's nuclear warheads. But that, of course, is not the issue.
