Gadhafi complains of snub at US nuclear summit, says Libya’s absence hurt world peace

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Gadhafi: US nuclear snub of Libya hurts peace

WASHINGTON — Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi complained Monday that the Obama administration had not invited him to a nuclear security summit earlier this month in Washington and said the snub would hurt efforts to rid the world of nuclear weapons.

Gadhafi, speaking via video link from Tripoli, said the failure to invite Libya was a “political blunder” as it was the most recent nation to give up its weapons of mass destruction programs voluntarily. He said not rewarding Libya’s move with an invitation made it difficult to persuade Iran or North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions.

“It was a mistake,” he told a conference on U.S.-Libyan relations.

“Libya should have been invited, should have been thanked,” Gadhafi said. “It was not useful for world peace and it was not useful for disarmament. It does not encourage others to follow Libya’s example. I would really like to express my strong regret for Libya not having been invited to that conference.”

The U.S. has never publicly explained why Gadhafi in particular was not invited. “There was not an attempt to exclude any one country, there was simply a need to limit participants to facilitate a robust dialogue,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.

But some officials have suggested there were concerns about Gadhafi indulging in his penchant for rambling speeches or using the occasion to criticize Israel for its suspected possession of nuclear weapons.

In his comments on Monday, Gadhafi repeated his past criticism of Israel on the nuclear issue, saying it was not fair for one country in the Middle East to possess atomic weapons while others are denied them. He also said the West has not shown sufficient gratitude to Libya for its contribution to non-proliferation.

Gadhafi renounced terrorism and dismantled his country’s nuclear, chemical and biological weapons development in 2003, leading to normalization of relations with the United States after decades of pariah status.

Both President Barack Obama and his predecessor, President George W. Bush, have pointed to Libya as proof that countries can benefit by giving up weapons of mass destruction.

But Gadhafi, who has complained that the reward of improved ties with the U.S. and the West has not translated into a greater economic windfall, said he did not have much leverage with Iran or North Korea in convincing them to follow suit because “Libya has not been compensated for its good deed.”

“Therefore, the Libyan example is not attractive to them,” he said. “We were not even invited to the nuclear security conference so we really don’t have much of a strong argument that we can use with Iran or North Korea.”

Obama hosted more than 40 world leaders and senior officials at the April 12-13 summit, including several from countries that have given up nuclear weapons or programs to develop them. Libya was not invited and U.S. officials said after the summit that Libya had summoned U.S. ambassador to Tripoli to vent its anger at the snub.