UN Nuclear Watchdog Says Missing Libya Uranium Found

This is a locator map for Libya with its capital, Tripoli. (AP Photo) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
This is a locator map for Libya with its capital, Tripoli. (AP Photo) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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UN Nuclear Watchdog Says Missing Libya Uranium Found

This is a locator map for Libya with its capital, Tripoli. (AP Photo) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
This is a locator map for Libya with its capital, Tripoli. (AP Photo) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

UN inspectors visiting southern Libya found drums containing natural uranium reported missing earlier this month in the chaos-stricken country, the UN nuclear watchdog said Saturday.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said earlier this month that some 2.5 tons of natural uranium stored at a site in the southern town of Sabha had gone missing.
Forces of the Libyan commander Khalifa Hafter said they found the missing material close to the storage site, The Associated Press reported.

In a statement to The Associated Press on Saturday, the Vienna-based agency said UN inspectors visited the area on March 21 and saw the material being transferred to the storage site.

UN inspectors found that a “relatively small amount of UOC (Uranium ore concentrate) was still unaccounted for,” it said.

The IAEA said, however, there was no immediate radiological risk at the location.

The statement said investigations were still underway on the matter including reconciling the quantities of natural uranium at the site with those previously verified by the IAEA.

The IAEA said its director-general, Rafael Mariano Grossi, informed member states Friday about the findings of the visit.

Natural uranium cannot immediately be used for energy production or bomb fuel, as the enrichment process typically requires the metal to be converted into a gas, then later spun in centrifuges to reach the levels needed.

But each ton of natural uranium — if obtained by a group with the technological means and resources — can be refined to 5.6 kilograms (12 pounds) of weapons-grade material over time, experts say.

The material dates back to the rule of late Moammar Gadhafi, who stored thousands of barrels of so-called yellowcake uranium for a once-planned uranium conversion facility that was never built in his decades-long secret weapons program.

Estimates put the Libyan stockpile at some 1,000 metric tons of yellowcake uranium under Gadhafi, who declared his nascent nuclear weapons program to the world in 2003 after the US-led invasion of Iraq.

Sabha is located some 660 kilometers (410 miles) southeast of Tripoli, in the country’s lawless southern reaches of the Sahara Desert. Libya has descended into chaos following a NATO-backed uprising that ousted and later killed Gadhafi. The country has for years been split between rival administrations in the east and the west, each backed by armed groups.

Following the IAEA’s revelations in mid-March that some 2.5 tons of natural uranium had gone missing in Libya, Hafter’s forces said they found the drums some 5 kilometers (3 miles) south of the facility.

In a statement, Hafter’s forces claimed that Chadian separatist fighters, who operate in the region, likely attempted to steal the drums after mistaking them for weapons and ammunition. Hafter’s forces provided no evidence for the accusation.



Jumblatt Ends Annual Commemoration of His Father’s Assassination after ‘Historic Justice Takes Course’

Former head of Lebanon Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) Walid Jumblatt delivers his speech during the commemoration on Sunday. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Former head of Lebanon Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) Walid Jumblatt delivers his speech during the commemoration on Sunday. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Jumblatt Ends Annual Commemoration of His Father’s Assassination after ‘Historic Justice Takes Course’

Former head of Lebanon Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) Walid Jumblatt delivers his speech during the commemoration on Sunday. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Former head of Lebanon Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) Walid Jumblatt delivers his speech during the commemoration on Sunday. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Former head of Lebanon Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) and Druze leader Walid Jumblatt announced on Sunday he was ending the annual commemoration of the assassination of his father, Kamal, “after historic justice has taken its course.”

Jumblatt had been holding the commemoration annually since his father was assassinated by the now ousted Syrian regime on March 16, 1977.

Earlier this month, the new authorities in Syria announced the arrest of former chief of intelligence Ibrahim Huweija, who is accused of “hundreds of assassinations” under the Assad regime. He had overseen Kamal Jumblatt’s assassination.

Politicians, Druze figures and supporters across Lebanon had gathered at Mokhtara on Sunday for the 48th anniversary of the assassination.

Addressing the crowd, Jumblatt declared: “For 48 years, we had gathered on March 16 to read the Fatiha and place a red rose on Kamal Jumblatt’s grave and the grave of his companions Hafez al-Ghosseini and Fawzi Chedid. This was an occasion to forge ahead in defiance and confrontation.”

16 March 2025, Lebanon, Mokhtara: Lebanese Druze attend a ceremony to mark the 48th anniversary of the assassination of leader Kamal Jumblatt, father of Druze chief Walid Jumblatt in the village of Mokhtara. (dpa)

“During the worst of times, it was an occasion to remember and persevere, derive strength to continue living,” he added.

“Now, freedom shines in Syria at long last. The regime of oppression and injustice has collapsed after some 54 years. The Syrian people are free and the new authorities led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa have arrested the man behind Kamal Jumblatt’s assassination,” he added.

“On behalf of my family and the PSP, I declare an end to the tradition of holding the commemoration given that historic justice has taken its course albeit after some time,” he stressed.

Jumblatt said: “Mokhtara is looking forward to a new chapter in struggle and defiance in new areas, not limited to, more humanitarian socialism as advocated by Kamal Jumblatt.”

He underlined the historic reconciliation in Lebanon on August 3, 2001, that was sponsored by late Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir. The agreement lays the foundation for intra-Lebanese relations that rise above political divisions.

He also underscored the importance of “clinging on to Lebanon’s Arab identity as promoted by major thinkers, writers, politicians and nationalists. This identity has been tarnished by regimes of oppression.”

Jumblatt also stressed the need to liberate southern Lebanon from Israeli occupation, the demarcation of the border to protect Lebanese sovereignty, implementation of international resolutions, and the reconstruction of areas destroyed by the Israeli war on Hezbollah last year.

Former head of the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) Walid Jumblatt (C) lays a flower on his father Kamal Jumblatt's grave during a ceremony to commemorate the 48th anniversary of his assassination in Mokhtara, Chouf Mountains, southeast of Beirut, Lebanon, 16 March 2025. (EPA)

Moreover, he called for “rebuilding Lebanese-Syrian relations on new foundations away from past experiences.”

Turning to the Druze community, he urged them to “maintain their Arab identity and protect their history of joint struggle with Arab and Syrian nationalists against colonization. Maintain your position in confronting the occupation of Arab territories in the Syrian Golan Heights.”

Commenting on the visit by Syrian Druze clerics to Israel last week, he said: “Religious visits do not negate the occupation of Palestine and the Golan.”

He called on the Druze to “preserve their Islamic heritage,” warning them against being influenced by Zionism. He also warned them against being manipulated “to divide Syria and the rest of the region under the pretext of the alliance of minorities that was opposed by Kamal Jumblatt – a stance for which he paid for with his life.”

At the end of his speech, Jumblatt declared: “We were patient, persevered and were victorious.”