U.S., Europeans Blocked Anew at UN Over Syrian Nuclear Plant
By Bill Varner 
Jul 13, 2011 
Bloomberg
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-13/u-s-europeans-blocked-anew-at-un-over-syrian-nuclear-plant-1-.html
 
The U.S. and its European allies at the United Nations are facing the same opposition to punishing Syria’s secret construction of a nuclear facility that has blocked their efforts to condemn government repression of protesters. 
The Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency voted on June 9 to report Syria’s violation of non- proliferation accords to the UN Security Council. Neville Whiting, the IAEA’s director of nuclear safeguards for the Middle East, is scheduled to brief the council tomorrow on Syria’s failure to report the facility and refusal to cooperate with an investigation by the Vienna-based nuclear agency. 
Russia is leading opposition in New York that will likely make the briefing and a subsequent private discussion the Security Council’s only involvement in the issue. Recognizing the division in the 15-member council, the U.S., Britain, France, Germany and Portugal haven’t sought a statement or threatened sanctions against Syria. 
The Security Council should play “no role” in the matter, Russia’s Deputy Ambassador Alexander Pankin said. 
“In a crime investigation, if you don’t have a corpse you don’t have a case,” Pankin said, referring to the fact that Israel destroyed the then-suspected nuclear reactor in 2007. “There is nothing there. We are not an investigation team, we are the Security Council. We deal with imminent or coming threats.” 
‘Won’t Fly’ 
Ambassador Hardeep Singh Puri of India, a Security Council member, said that while he heard that a draft statement might be circulated to the panel, “it won’t fly.” Russia and China, which voted against the IAEA resolution, would block any proposed statement on the nuclear facility, he said. 
Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, acknowledged the division in the Security Council today by telling reporters that “there are several members of the council, including some veto- wielding members, who did not support the referral and who are unlikely to support a council product.” 
India has joined Russia, China and Security Council members Brazil and South Africa in opposing a draft resolution condemning the repression in Syria. It’s been blocked since late May. 
Asked Brazil’s view of how the Security Council should handle the Syrian nuclear issue, Ambassador Maria Viotti said there were “no grounds for doing anything.” 
The UN nuclear agency concluded on May 24 that Syria was probably building a surreptitious nuclear reactor. The government in Damascus stymied IAEA inspections and limited access to the bombed site for more than three years. Investigators reported finding traces of modified uranium particles at the bombed Dair Alzour site that they said may have been residue from a reactor. 
Syria’s Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari said the Security Council shouldn’t be discussing the issue. It’s the “IAEA’s business,” he said.