IAEA unaware of 'undeclared nuclear facility' in Syria

October 15, 2007
AFP
Original Source: http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5j-MZUJW6wLj3nOQyENfo-M_9TFng http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5j-MZUJW6wLj3nOQyENfo-M_9TFng 

VIENNA (AFP) — The UN nuclear watchdog said Monday it had no information about any undeclared nuclear facility in Syria and it was investigating media reports that such a site had been the target of a recent Israeli air strike.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has no information about any undeclared nuclear facility in Syria and no information about recent reports, spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said.

We would obviously investigate any relevant information coming our way. The IAEA Secretariat expects any country having information about nuclear-related activities in another country to provide that information to the IAEA.

The IAEA was in contact with the Syrian authorities to verify the authenticity of these reports, Fleming added.

According to The New York Times, Israel bombed a site in Syria last month that Israeli and US intelligence believe was a partly built nuclear reactor possibly modeled after one in North Korea. 

Citing unnamed US and foreign officials with access to the intelligence reports, the report said it appeared Israel carried out the September 6 raid to demonstrate its determination to snuff out even a nascent nuclear project in a neighboring state. 

Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad has said only that the target was an unused military building and that the bombs hit nothing of consequence.

The newspaper quoted a US official as saying that there was little doubt within the administration of President George W. Bush that a nuclear facility was indeed being built. 

There wasn't a lot of debate about the evidence, the paper quoted a US official as saying of the discussions between the US and Israel.

There was a lot of debate about how to respond to it.

The facility that the Israelis struck in Syria appears to have been much further from completion than the Osirak nuclear reactor that Israel destroyed in Iraq in 1981, the paper said. 

Officials said it would have been years before the Syrians could have used the reactor to produce the spent nuclear fuel that could, through a series of additional steps, be reprocessed into bomb-grade plutonium.

North Korea has long provided military assistance to Syria, but any help in building a reactor would have marked the first clear evidence of ties between the two countries on a nuclear program. 

Such cooperation would complicate multi-national talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons program.

In Washington and Israel, the raid has been shrouded in secrecy and information restricted to few officials. Israeli media has been allowed to publish only the fact that a raid occurred without comment from Israeli officials.