The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog has expressed anger the US failed to provide it sooner with intelligence relating to its claims Syria built a nuclear reactor with North Korean help.
Mohamed ElBaradei, director general, said the International Atomic Energy Agency would investigate the US allegations, pledging to treat the claim “with the seriousness it deserves.”
But he deplored the fact the information was not provided “in a timely manner”.
While refraining from criticising Syria and North Korea at this stage, he also condemned Israel for bombing the reactor last September. “The Director General views the unilateral use of force by Israel as undermining the due process of verification that is at the heart of the non-proliferation regime,” the IAEA said in a statement
IAEA officials on Friday expressed bemusement about some of the information produced by the CIA on the reactor. One Vienna-based official described a CIA video bringing together a compilation of images at the Syrian facility as “a little propagandistic.”
IAEA officials also argued that there was no time pressure on the Israelis to carry out last September’s military strike. IAEA officials noted, for example, that there was no evidence that Syria had obtained uranium from another state to feed into the reactor.
They also noted that there was no evidence that the “al-Kibar” site had a reprocessing facility attached. According to IAEA officials, the presence of such a facility would be essential to convert the plutonium emerging from the reactor into weapons-grade material.
While the IAEA wants to begin questioning Syrian officials about the facility, the agency believes it is unlikely to be able to verify independently whether the US claims are true. This is because no nuclear material appears to have been fed into the site.
The presence of nuclear material at the site would leave a trace that IAEA inspectors would be in a position to verify. Following Israel’s bombing of the site - and Syria’s alleged dismantling of what was left behind - it will probably be impossible for the IAEA to establish independently what Syria was doing.
