Global Security Newswire

British Prime Minister David Cameron on Tuesday acknowledged that Muammar Qadhafi, the late Libyan dictator, was able to keep hidden from international monitors several chemical weapon caches that should have been declared under a 2004 agreement with the West to shutter all of his WMD-related programs, the London Telegraph reported (see GSN, Nov. 11).

"In the last few days we have learned that the new Libyan authorities have found chemical weapons that were kept hidden from the world," Cameron said in a speech in London.

British chemical weapons experts would travel to Libya in November for a period of six months to participate in a multilateral effort to destroy the nation's chemical warfare materials, he said. British and U.S. specialists would also help Libya's interim government with an anti-proliferation effort to round up hundreds of shoulder-launched antiaircraft missiles.

London will spend approximately $1.58 million to finance the efforts of its chemical weapon and anti-proliferation experts in Libya.

Following the 2004 deal, Tripoli declared under the Chemical Weapons Convention an arsenal of 25 metric tons of mustard blister agent and 1,400 tons of precursor materials. Destruction of those declared chemical warfare materials was temporarily broken off when the popular armed uprising began in February that ultimately overthrew the decades-old Qadhafi regime.

It is now the understanding that the Qadhafi regime produced some chemical arms that were kept secret from monitors from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

The U.K. prime minster said it was "worth noting" that while Qadhafi had declared that he was shuttering his unconventional weapon programs, it is now apparent that he maintained some WMD side operations (Thomas Harding, London Telegraph, Nov. 15).