UN Nuclear Watchdog Begins Key Talks On Iran, Syria

March 2, 2009 
Easy Bourse

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VIENNA (AFP)--The U.N. atomic watchdog sat down to a key meeting here Monday to discuss its investigations into alleged illicit nuclear work by both Iran and Syria. 
Also on the agenda of the 35-member board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency was the appointment of a new director general as Mohamed ElBaradei is set to step down in November. 
The meeting, slated to last all week, is the first since U.S. President Barack Obama took office and said that Washington could be ready for direct talks with Iran. 
But Iran's first satellite launch and the announcement that its first nuclear power plant in Bushehr could go on line within months have heightened concerns in many Western countries. 
The assessment that Tehran may have sufficient nuclear material to build a bomb has also raised worries. 
The IAEA is also concerned about Syria, where U.N. inspectors first went last June to investigate allegations that Damascus had a secret North Korea-designed nuclear reactor in a remote desert, until it was bombed by Israeli jets in September 2007.