News, December 2003, www.aljazeerah.info
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Israeli daily aggression on the Palestinian people
Mission and meaning of Al-Jazeerah
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UN Inspectors Visit Libyan Nuke Sites
Reuters, Arab News
TRIPOLI, 29 December 2003 — The UN nuclear watchdog said yesterday it had begun inspections of Libya’s nuclear facilities and visited four sites near the capital for the first time.
A spokesman for the International Atomic Energy Agency said the UN team, which arrived in Tripoli on Saturday led by IAEA chief Mohamed El-Baradei, was now drafting a work plan with the Libyan authorities for the coming weeks.
Earlier this month Libya acknowledged trying to develop banned weapons, including nuclear arms, and invited inspectors in.
“Inspections did commence on Sunday. Dr. El-Baradei and his team went to four nuclear sites previously unvisited and all four were in the Tripoli area,” Mark Gwozdecky told reporters.
“Right now we are continuing our technical discussions with the Libyan authorities to develop a work plan for the days and weeks ahead.”
He gave no further details of the sites or what they contained.
Under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty which Libya signed in the 1970s, the country is required to declare all sensitive nuclear installations to the United Nations.
The Libyans say they have been working on a pilot scale centrifuge uranium-enrichment program but have not enriched any uranium. Enrichment is a process of purifying uranium for use as nuclear fuel or in weapons.
Libya’s Foreign Minister Mohamed Abderrhmane Chalgam said Saturday Tripoli had never crossed the line from laboratory experiments into actually making weapons.
El-Baradei is expected to stay in Tripoli until today.
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| Earth, a planet hungry for peace |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank, like a Python (Alquds, 1/25/03. |
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