U.S.-Libya Gain Partial Victory on Plant Request

By David Ruppe
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — An international body yesterday endorsed a proposed change to the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention that could allow Libya to convert a former chemical weapons production facility into a civilian pharmaceutical plant (see GSN, Oct. 13).

The Executive Council of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), however, deferred at least until December a decision on Libya’s specific proposal for converting its former chemical weapons facility at Rabta. 

The United States and 16 other nations supported Libya’s effort this week to gain OPCW approval to convert the Rabta plant.

“Libya desires to convert the Rabta chemical weapons production facility to produce low-cost pharmaceuticals to treat AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis throughout the African continent and the developing world. The United States supports Libya’s proposal,” said U.S. ambassador Eric Javits, addressing the council on Tuesday.

The treaty currently requires parties to destroy such facilities, or to have converted them within six years after the treaty took effect in 1997. Libya, however, only joined the pact earlier this year. The approved treaty-change would erase the 2003 deadline.

The 41-member council, which is the primary decision-making organ of the organization, unanimously approved the treaty-change recommendation. The change must now be approved by a conference of states parties to take effect.

A council member, however, blocked a decision on Libya’s actual plant conversion, for further review of the plan. That effectively delays any action at least until the next Executive Council session in December, according to a senior U.S. official who asked not to be identified.

The blocking council member was Russia, according to another source.

Delays in approving highly technical plans are not unusual at the OPCW, according to the U.S. official, who said past approvals have taken years.

Politics can sometimes be a factor, said John Hart, a researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Nevertheless, the council’s treaty change endorsement is seen as a positive step by the United States, the official said.

“It’s a victory in the sense that the Executive Council has considered a situation that was not exactly foreseen by the treaty and has reacted to it in a constructive fashion,” the official said.

It is unlikely that the conference of states parties would not approve the council’s recommendation, Hart said.

To enable Libya’s conversion plan, countries had sought to amend the treaty to eliminate the conversion deadline. 

The change sought by the United States and Libya would allow a treaty conference of states parties in the future to set a specific conversion deadline for each new member.

“The proposal will work not just for Libya, but for any future acceding state that may possess a chemical weapons production facility and legitimately wish to convert it for purposes not prohibited by the convention,” Javits said at the meeting earlier this week.

Another U.S. official who spoke with Global Security Newswire on condition of anonymity said the 2003 deadline was included in the treaty to compel countries to join the treaty early so they could take advantage of the six years allowed for conversion, and avoid having to destroy facilities by joining late.

“It was put in purposely back when the treaty was negotiated to be carrots and sticks to get people to join the treaty,” the official said.

Now, however, the requirement can have a negative impact by discouraging states to join, Javits said at the meeting.

“The adoption of this technical change will correct a disincentive for nonmember states to accede to the convention,” he said.

“In short, the United States places great importance on adoption of this technical change by the council, not only for the immediate benefit which will accrue to people in Africa and developing nations, but for the contribution it will make toward achieving universal adherence to the convention,” he said.

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