Middle East Features

Inspectors to ask for more access during IAEA probe of Syria

Jun 20, 2008, 16:37 GMT

Vienna - As inspectors from the UN nuclear watchdog prepare to travel to Syria for the first time Sunday to investigate whether the country was building an undeclared nuclear reactor, diplomats say that Damascus has yet to agree to all the inspectors' demands. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief inspector Ollie Heinonen and two of his specialists plan to go to Syria from Sunday to Tuesday to investigate whether the al-Kibar site that was bombed by Israel last year was indeed a reactor geared towards producing plutonium. IAEA inspectors will take samples at the site that could reveal whether there was any nuclear material at al-Kibar, diplomats say. In addition, samples could show whether any graphite, a material used in reactor cores, was present at the location. Syria maintains that there was no nuclear facility, but only a military site. The IAEA hopes to see the rubble that was taken away from the site, a Western diplomat told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa, but details of what the inspectors will be allowed to do still have to be worked out between the IAEA team and Syrian officials. 'There is still going to be negotiating when they get there, which is not very encouraging,' the diplomat said. In April, the IAEA received US documents and photographs indicating that the site was a reactor being built with the help of North Korea. 'According to this information, the reactor was not yet operational and no nuclear material had been introduced into it,' IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said in early June. Since the Israeli air raid in September 2007, Syria has razed the site, satellite images show. Although only the al-Kibar visit is confirmed, the inspectors are expected to press for access to other sites that may have been related to a nascent Syrian nuclear programme, two diplomats said. At the beginning of this month, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said in press remarks that his country would cooperate with the UN nuclear watchdog. Under its agreements with the IAEA, Damascus is obliged to report nuclear projects to the Vienna-based agency as early as the planning stage. There was no clear evidence Syria had the fuel or the human resources to operate a large-scale nuclear facility, ElBaradei said in an interview with the Dubai-based al-Arabiya television station on Tuesday. The head of the IAEA said his organization had only pictures of a site in Syria bombed by Israel last year that resembles a nuclear facility. He has repeatedly criticized the US and Israel for not involving his agency before the bombing. 'He doesn't think there is 100 per cent credible assurance it is a reactor,' an official close to the IAEA said. Images released to the public by the US government include detailed ground-level photographs of the of the al-Kibar site, closely resembling the inside of the North Korean Yongbyon reactor. The IAEA did not expect definitive answers from this first visit, sources close to the agency said. 'This is really the beginning of a process: no-one knows how long it will take,' one source said. It depended on whether Syria would allow further inspections, and on whether the findings of the first visit would show the need for more investigations, he said.

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Again, the RunaroundJun 21st, 2008 - 08:51:20

If Damascus does not agree to all of the inspectors demands, then, they have something to hide and that ain't kosher.

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michael UKJun 21st, 2008 - 18:41:14

Since Israel uses depleted uranium munitions I hope the people inspecting this site are very careful. Also look forward to their inspection of Israel and the US, like when?

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I do not understand!!Jun 22nd, 2008 - 22:48:01

Why Syria has to let these intelligence agents of COLONIST come in to take DATA, not needed for world peace?

Have they ever stopped any Christian country from making BOMBS?

Have they ever inspected the Zionist entity?

How about India, South Africa, Brazil, to name few culprits and those incvolved in wars, invading other countries!!

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