Syria Denies Nuclear Watchdog Access to Military Sites
Phil Sands
04/08/2010
The National
Original Source: – HYPERLINK http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Foreign-Policy/2010/0302/Bluster-at-UN-Human-Rights-Council-as-US-and-Iran-trade-barbs http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100409/FOREIGN/704089882/1135/editorials

As pressure on Syria slowly increases over an alleged secret nuclear programme, the authorities in Damascus show little sign of alarm, banking that the issue is of limited importance and will, eventually, fade from the world s agenda.

Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN s nuclear watchdog, were in the Syrian capital this week to inspect a research reactor, as part of an ongoing probe into what the IAEA says are unexplained uranium particles.

Despite gaining access to the Syrian nuclear laboratory however, IAEA inspectors have been denied permission to visit other contentious sites, including military installations in the eastern desert region.

Damascus continues to hold firm to its line that the UN nuclear agency has no right to repeat visits to any military sites.  This is a matter of sovereignty, no country allows foreign inspectors on to sensitive military installations,  said an official in Syria s ruling Baath party.  We are co-operating fully with the IAEA and we will continue to do so, but we will not compromise on sovereignty issues. 

One of the sites, bombed by the Israeli air force in 2007, was, according to US intelligence reports, a North Korean-designed nuclear reactor. The IAEA has asked to inspect rubble that was removed by the Syrian authorities in the immediate aftermath of the attack, a request that has not been met.

Syria rejects the claims against it, denying involvement in any type of clandestine nuclear project. The authorities in Damascus are also adamant they are meeting every legal obligation to the UN, which, in a first round of inspections at one of the suspect areas, found traces of nuclear material it says have not been satisfactorily accounted for. Syria s representative to the IAEA in Vienna said any out-of-place uranium particles must have been dropped by Israeli forces during their bombing mission.

Syrian officials and analysts say they are confident the nuclear issue is far from a priority, regardless of the continued IAEA inspections.

A Syrian analyst, speaking on condition of anonymity, said:  Stability in Lebanon and Iraq and the most important things, there is the peace process [with Israel and the Palestinians], there is Iran and its nuclear programme. With those things on the table, I m sure the [Syria] nuclear issue doesn t even get talked about, it s nothing. 

A number of western officials all but confirmed that view, saying that Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, economic reforms and human rights concerns were top of the agenda in meetings with their Syrian counterparts.

The Syrian president, Bashar Assad, has repeatedly called for the Middle East to be declared a nuclear weapon-free zone, shrugging off suggestions that a nuclear bomb would be useable, given the short distance between Israel and Syria.

Israel, which remains in a state of war with Syria, is the only regional power with an atomic weapons arsenal –  one that Syrians pointedly note has never been inspected by UN nuclear officials.

Western diplomats based in Damascus warn that the IAEA, now headed by Yukiya Amano, will be more tenacious in investigating the claims against Syria than it was under his predecessor, Mohammad ElBaradei.

Mr ElBaradei was highly critical of Israel for launching unilateral air strikes on the suspect facility, rather than allowing the UN watchdog to carry out inspections. Any firm evidence of a secret nuclear programme would almost certainly have been destroyed by the bombs, he said.

Mr Amano has taken a different line. In the IAEA s last report on Syria, issued in February, he said the uranium traces found in 2008 did indicate to nuclear-related activity had taken place on the ground –  the first time the UN agency had suggested US intelligence claims may have been correct.

One diplomat said:  This is a serious issue and the western countries are united in that view. Syria will always come back and say  there are double standards, look at Israel  and they are right to say that, but that does not change the seriousness with which we all view additional nuclear proliferation. 

The diplomat, however, did suggest Syria was right to believe that the nuclear issue would not have any real impact on improving relations with the European Union and the United States since George W Bush left the White House.

In recent years Syria has largely freed itself from US-led attempts to isolate it on the world stage, Damascus now enjoying cordial relations with Brussels, Beirut, Washington and with other Arab states, nuclear suspicions not withstanding.

 Saying the nuclear situation is serious does not necessarily mean it s a make-or-break issue,  the western diplomat said.  The last eight years have proven that you must engage with Syria, you must talk to the Syrians if you are to get anywhere. Isolating them, trying to push them into a corner, does not work.

 Not talking to them is not really an option, not any more.