Libya denied Monday it wanted to acquire long-range missiles, accusing the United States of “spreading such accusations in order to justify its domination of Europe and the Mediterranean”.
“The allegations of (US Defense Secretary) William Cohen that Libya and other countries are seeking to acquire missiles capable of hitting US and European soil do not stand up to reality,” the spokesman of the foreign ministry in Tripoli said.
On Saturday, Cohen said that Iran, Iraq, Libya and North Korea were seeking to acquire or planned to equip themselves with long-range missiles which could hit US territory as well as Europe.
“These allegations are made to justify the US domination of Europe and the Mediterranean as well as the enlargement of NATO by (inclusion of) countries of the East and the South,” the spokesman said.
He demanded that US officials “refrain from mentioning Libya’s name in their accusations”.
On January 22, Libya denied trying to acquire missiles with a range of more than 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) from North Korea, which could have reached Israel and the south of Europe.
The allegation was made in the Spanish daily El Pais, quoting a Spanish secret service report.
In January British customsmen said they had discovered 32 crates of missile parts packed under the name of a knitwear firm as they were about to be flown to Tripoli via Malta.
Arms sales to Libya are still banned under the terms of a European Union embargo and an international treaty prohibiting the proliferation of ballistic missiles.
Defence experts said the assembled Scud missiles would have had a range of around 900 kilometres (560 miles). The Sunday Times, which made the find public, claimed documents found with the crates indicated a series of parts had already made it safely to Tripoli.
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