Libya’s surprise declaration giving up its nuclear, biological and chemical weapons was the culmination of a week of negotiations that followed months of secret diplomacy, including late-night meetings in Tripoli between Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and CIA experts as well as clandestine visits to Libya by British and U.S. arms experts, officials in London and Washington said Saturday.
The meetings with Gadhafi occurred secretly this fall, and Gadhafi ordered his subordinates to cooperate with the CIA’s review of Libya’s illicit weapons programs, U.S. intelligence officials said Saturday.
“During meetings with Col. Gadhafi, he was consistent throughout with his desire to proceed with the admissions and elimination of his weapons program,” one intelligence official said.
On Thursday, British Prime Minister Tony Blair had his first phone conversation with Gadhafi, an aide said. Sir Nigel Sheinwald, Blair’s national security adviser, and Condoleezza Rice, Bush’s national security adviser, spoke with Libyan officials during the week, British and U.S. officials said.
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Even ailing Secretary of State Colin Powell was involved, talking on the phone with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw from Powell’s hospital bed, where he was recovering from prostate surgery, a State Department official said.
The efforts grew out of five years of talks over United Nations sanctions imposed on Libya after the bombing in 1988 of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, British and U.S. officials said. The UN agreed to lift the sanctions after Libya acknowledged responsibility and offered compensation.
Libya said full payment would come only after all international sanctions were lifted, but Congress and the Bush administration insisted that sanctions be maintained until Libya gave up its illicit weapons programs and links to terrorist organizations.
That position forced Libya, economically crippled and desperate for the return of foreign oil companies, to consider the new concessions, U.S. and British officials said.
An intelligence official added that the Libyan leader was also concerned about extremist elements in the country.
British and U.S. officials said Friday that Libya made the initial approach in March, before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
The negotiations hinged on how strongly Gadhafi would publicly commit to breaking with Libya’s past, given the criticism such an act would probably cause in parts of the Arab world, officials in London said.
A British official who briefed reporters said a strong declaration was crucial after discoveries by inspectors.
“Our team was given access to projects under way . . . including uranium enrichment,” the official said. The British team also saw “significant quantities of chemical agent.”
The significance of Libya’s declaration is that it appears unconditional. But the praise that Bush and Blair heaped on the Libyan leader suggested that the Bush administration might soon ask Congress to lift sanctions and restore economic and trade ties. Britain did so in 1999 when it re-established diplomatic relations with Tripoli.
But Gadhafi has a history of tantalizing Washington with pledges to give up his stockpile of illicit weapons.