US Secretary of State Colin Powell has talked with the chief UN nuclear inspector about ending differences with Washington over who should take the lead role in scrapping Libya's nascent nuclear arms program, diplomats said.
The diplomats said on Friday that Powell's recent telephone conversation with IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei focused on tensions over Libya between his agency and US administration officials already unhappy with the IAEA stance on Iraq and Iran.
At issue is whether the IAEA or Washington should police the destruction of Libya's nuclear arms program, which Tripoli made public last month.
Senior US officials over the past week have said that will be carried out by a team of US and British experts and suggested the IAEA was poorly informed about the extent of Libya's nuclear activities. One diplomat said ElBaradei was infuriated by "potshots," directed at him and attributed to unnamed senior administration officials in US media.
Over the past year, the Egyptian law professor also has been the target of US accusations that he minimized the nuclear weapons threats from Iraq under Saddam Hussein and from Iran.
ElBaradei on Tuesday said that the IAEA intends to "do it alone." Reinforcing that message on Friday, ElBaradei spokesman Mark Gwozdecky said policing Libya's nuclear program and stripping it of arms applications was "our exclusive responsibility."
Diplomats who follow IAEA activities said on condition of anonymity that Powell had suggested to ElBaradei that it would be best if public discussion ended on who should have primacy over dismantling the programs.
"It was agreed to return to more diplomatic channels of communication," said one of the diplomats.
Another said, however, that the Americans remained firm in their view that it was their right to take the lead in scrapping Lib-ya's suspect nuclear programs if asked to do so by Tripoli.
"If Libya wants the United States to go in, then the Americans feel they are free to go in," he said.
In Washington, a State Department official denied friction with the IAEA, saying the agency has a role to play, along with the US and the British, but "who does what needs to be worked out."
ElBaradei and an IAEA team on the weekend visited four once-secret nuclear sites in the Libyan capital, Tripoli. While US officials have suggested that the Libyan program was advanced, ElBaradei said that, from what they saw, Libya was still years away from developing nuclear weapons.
During the trip, ElBaradei met with Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi, who assured the IAEA chief that his government would cooperate fully with inspections and eliminate its nuclear program, saying he wanted to turn Libya into a "mainstream" nation.
The White House and ElBaradei's agency have also had tensions during the past year over the extent of the nuclear weapons threat in Iraq under Saddam Hussein and in Iran.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was