Contrary to recent American claims that the war on Iraq forced Libya to give up its nuclear weapons program, former UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix said argued that diplomacy should be given most of the credit.
"I think the dialogue in Libya started before the war," Blix said, speaking in Stockholm at the first meeting of a new international commission on weapons of mass destruction, of which he is chairman.
"If the Iraqi affair injected a concern in Libya and Iran and North Korea... I really don't know," he conveyed, according to AFP. "One could instead say that the Libyan case shows that you can through diplomacy and through sanctions and through other means obtain a voluntary renunciation of weapons."
US President George Bush claimed last week that the war in Iraq forced Libya to suddenly announce late month that it was giving up its nuclear weapons program. (Albawaba.com)
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