Special to WorldTribune.com

BAGHDAD — Iraq has agreed to help dispose of weapons of mass
destruction in Libya.

Officials said the Baghdad government has approved an effort to help
Libya remove chemical weapons found in the arsenal of the late Libyan Col.
Moammar Gadhafi.

The officials said the project would begin over the next few weeks
in cooperation with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical
Weapons.

“The Cabinet has decided to provide necessary technical assistance to
the Libyan authorities to dispose of their chemical stockpiles, according to
the procedures followed by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons,” the Iraqi Cabinet said on April 12.

The statement, released by Iraqi government spokesman Ali Al Dabbagh,
said Baghdad has garnered “extensive experience” in the disposal of chemical weapons. Iraq signed the Chemical Weapons Convention in 2009, six years after the fall of the regime of President Saddam Hussein.

The statement said the Libyan request came through OPCW. The
organization gave Libya an April 29 deadline to submit a detailed plan to
destroy all CW and related material.

The Cabinet statement said Libya’s representative to the OPCW, Mohammed
Jibril, requested both diplomatic and technical help to eliminate Tripoli’s
CW stockpiles. No details were given.

In 2004, the Gadhafi regime declared 25 tons of sulfur mustard and more
than 3,500 chemical air munitions. Six years later, Libya is said to have
neutralized 55 percent of its stockpile.

  Iraq agrees to help rid Libya of WMD, Iraqi Cabinet, Moammar Gadhafi, mustard gas, Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons