Libya Renounces WMDs — Gaddafi's Rehabilitation
On 19 December 2003, in a dramatic reversal of decades of defiance, Muammar Gaddafi announced that Libya would verifiably dismantle all its chemical and nuclear weapons programmes and long-range missile systems, allowing international inspectors full access. The announcement, the result of secret nine-month negotiations with the US and UK facilitated partly through the back-channel of Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam, came eight months after the US invasion of Iraq. Critics noted that Libya's WMD programmes were in a rudimentary state and that Gaddafi extracted major concessions: UN sanctions were lifted, European and American companies poured into Libyan oil fields, and Gaddafi received state visits from Blair, Berlusconi, and Sarkozy. In the same package Libya formally accepted responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing and paid $2.7 billion to the 270 victims' families. The deal was widely cited by Western governments as a model for persuading 'rogue states' to abandon WMDs through diplomacy — until Gaddafi's overthrow in 2011 prompted questions about what the rehabilitation had actually achieved.
- Year: 2003 CE
