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US demands Syria cooperate on nuke plan
American ambassador to UN nuclear watchdog says Damascus must decide whether it plans to follow in Iran’s footsteps or cooperate on its alleged atomic program. A failure to do so, he warns, would lead to punishment measures
Roee Nahmias
| Published: | 12.13.08, 09:26 / Israel News |
A warning to Syria: US Ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Gregory Schulte says Syria has three months – until the United Nations nuclear watchdog’s next governors’ meeting in March – to start cooperating on its nuclear program, or it will be punished. A failure to do so, he warns, will lead to “punishment measures”.In an interview published Saturday with the London-based Arabic-language al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper, Schulte said that “the Damascus authorities must decide whether they wish to follow in Iran’s footsteps or cooperate.”Schulte also noted that North Korea has neither denied nor confirmed its involvement in the construction of the Syrian nuclear reactor allegedly bombed by Israel.”I hope the Syrians reach the conclusion that they should cooperate, for the sake of their own interests,” he said.
According to Schulte, if Damascus failed to cooperate “this would lead to a negative response, and serious questions would be raised”.
Schulte refused to discuss the sanctions which would be imposed on Syria if it continued its policy, saying that the IAEA’s goal at this time is to convince Damascus to cooperate.”No one is talking about sanctions today. The only thing we are talking about is a probe. The international agency is giving the Syrians an opportunity to cooperate, and they have an extension until the next meeting to cooperate.”
He added that this was not an official extension, but a date on which the nuclear watchdog would reexamine the Syrian nuclear issue, after the matter was discussed in the council’s latest meeting two weeks ago.Despite his reservations, Schulte added that “Syria is engaging in a tactic used by Iran in recent years – the failure to cooperate. This is not the road we want Syria to take. We hope Syria cooperates fully with the agency in regards to what happened in the Syrian desert. If they fail to cooperate, there will be consequences.”
Syrian reactor before bring bombed by Israel (Archive photo: AFP)
Only two weeks ago, the IAEA decided to provide Syria with technical support as part of its efforts to develop a nuclear reactor for peaceful purposes. This decision was a serious blow to the United States and Israel, who have been working in the past year to thwart this move, claiming Damascus is trying to develop nuclear weapons.
The UN nuclear watchdog has been probing Syria since May, following American intelligence reports which stated that Damascus was close to completing the Pyongyang-supervised construction of a nuclear reactor for the production of plutonium, at the site bombed by Israel.
According to reports published last month, IAEA inspectorsdiscovered uranium traces at the secret site attacked by Israel in September 2007. Syria denied claims that it had tried to attain nuclear energy for military purposes, violating the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty it had signed.
Syria dismisses IAEA report
UN watchdog report on alleged secret Syrian nuclear site bombed by Israel in 2007 ‘proves nothing’, country’s nuclear energy chief says
Reuters
Syria’s nuclear energy chief said on Friday a UN watchdog reporton an alleged secret Syrian nuclear site bombed by Israelproved nothing and the investigation should be closed.
Ibrahim Othman said he expected Syria would stick by a written agreement with UN inspectors that permitted only one visit to the Al-Kibar site - which took place last June -
and “we will not allow another visit”.
An International Atomic Energy Agency report issued on Wednesday said a Syrian complex destroyed in a 2007 Israeli air strike bore a number of characteristics resembling those of a nuclear reactor and UN inspectors had found a significant number of uranium traces in desert sands there.
The findings, based on satellite pictures and soil and water samples taken by UN investigators, were not enough to conclude a reactor was there but the findings were serious and warranted more investigation and Syrian transparency, the IAEA said.
Syrian site hit by Israel resembled an atomic reactor
The final report of the International Atomic Energy Agency Wednesday, Nov. 19, says the Syrian complex bombed by Israel 14 months ago bore features resembling those of an undeclared nuclear reactor. “Significant” amounts of man-made uranium particles were found in situ. Those features include the proximity of the site to the adequate pumping capacity of cooling water required by a reactor.
This report will be submitted the nuclear watchdog board meeting in Vienna on Nov. 27-28. Damascus is accused of failing to produce requested documentation to support its declaration about the nature of the building and refusing follow-up IAEA visits to three other locations suspected of harboring possible evidence linked to Israel’s target.
DEBKAfile was the only publication to report that the Israeli attack targeted more than one Syrian site. Washington says that the site was a nascent reactor meant to produce plutonium for atomic bombs.
The nuclear watchdog asks Syria for more cooperation and to show debris and equipment whisked away from the site demolished by Israel for further examination.
DEBKAfile’s military sources stress that the IAEA report attests to one of the most formidable feats of Israel’s external intelligence agency Mossad in conjunction with the US CIA.
Syrian president Bashar Assad is now confirmed as having been in the process of building nuclear weapons intended for attacking Israel.
Syria blames Israeli bombs for uranium traces
Iran foreign minister claims that reports of uranium traces found in site bombed by Israel last year politically motivated; says Israeli bombs were source of uranium
Syria’s foreign minister suggested Wednesday that Israeli bombs may be the source of uranium traces that diplomats at the UN nuclear agency said were found at a suspected nuclear site.
Walid Moallem said the leaks by the diplomats about the traces found at the site that was targeted by Israeli warplanes in September 2007 were politically motivated and aimed at pressuring Syria.
“No one has ever asked himself what kind of Israeli bombs had hit the site, and what did they contain?” he went on, adding that the United States and Israel had “similar acts” of using bombs containing depleted uranium in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“These media leaks are a clear-cut signal that the purpose was to pressure Syria. This means that the subject is not technical but rather political,” al-Moallem said at a news conference with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.
Washington is a harsh critic of Syria, accusing it of not doing enough to prevent cross-border infiltration by militants into Iraq and of destabilizing Lebanon, another neighbor.
An October 27 US commando raid into Syria near Iraq’s border further added to the tensions. US officials have said a prominent Iraqi militant was targeted. Syria said the raid killed eight Syrian civilians. Syria is still technically at war with Israel although both have in recently months held indirect peace talks through Turkey.
The latest nuclear accusations against Syria were disclosed by unnamed diplomats at the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency. They have said samples taken from a suspected nuclear site bombed by Israeli planes last year contained uranium combined with other elements that merit further investigation.
Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Tuesday his agency is taking allegations of a secret Syrian atomic program seriously and urged Damascus to cooperate fully with his investigation. He also urged other nations with information that could help the investigation to share what they know.
Elbaradei declined to comment on what the diplomats had said, telling reporters during a visit to the Czech capital of Prague only that his agency still has “a number of questions” linked to the allegations.
The US has said the facility was a nearly completed reactor that - when on line - could have produced plutonium, a pathway to nuclear arms.
Al-Moallem said the original US contention was that the alleged Syrian reactor was under construction, and not operational. “So the question is: From where the traces of enriched uranium came?”
Syria has previously denied any covert nuclear program, and al-Moallem said Wednesday Damascus was waiting for ElBaradei’s report to respond.
IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said Tuesday the latest findings on Syria were “still being drafted and our assessment and evaluation is still under way.” Once the process is finished, the report will be submitted to the IAEA Board of Governors ahead of its next meeting, which is scheduled to take place November 27-28.
Uranium found in Syria by UN nuclear inspectors
Uranium traces have been retreived from a suspected Syrian nuclear plant that was bombed in an Israeli cross-border airstrike last year.
by Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent
Last Updated: 6:03PM GMT 10 Nov 2008
Syria has vehemently rejected Israeli and American claims that it was constructing a secret nuclear plant at the destroyed facility. However Damascus failed to bring its protests over the violation of its sovereignty during the attack to the United Nations Security Council.
Instead it razed the site, which was located near the Euphrates River near the border with Iraq, before granting access to inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Diplomats in Vienna reported that inspectors had found uranium particles, despite the Syrian clean-up.
The composition of the material indicated that the facility was designed to process nuclear materials. “It was a man-made component, not natural (ore),” said one official accredited to the UN agency.
A second official said that Syria would have to accept the formal restrictions imposed on states suspected of pursuing a covert nuclear activities. He said: “The agency clearly thinks it has something significant enough to report to put Syria on the (nuclear safeguards) agenda right after North Korea and Iran.”
Israeli intelligence material appeared to show that Syria had relied on imported North Korean scientists to provide the technical expertise to construct the plant.
There is no evidence of Iranian involvement despite the close alliance the countries established in other security realms. Western diplomats have reported that exposure of the Syrian plant caused strains in the relationship with Iran, which was unaware of the project.
The rational for Syria’s apparent pursuit of a nuclear capability has puzzled most regional observers but suspicions centre on its heightened fear of a US invasion in the wake of the 2003 Iraq war. Syria’s Ba’athist regime curtailed co-operation with Western governments as Damascus sought to guarantee its own survival.
Syria’s grudging acceptance of the UN-sanctioned inspections and its failure to officially protest the Israeli raid stands in marked contrast to its angry denunciation of a US anti-terrorist operation in the same region last month.
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