Vienna - The governing board of the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA) gathered Thursday in Vienna to discuss alleged
secret nuclear activities in Syria and Iran.
In its regular November meeting, the 35-country board plans to
take up the IAEA's first report on Syria, which noted that an
alleged nuclear site that was destroyed by Israel in September 2007
had similarities to a reactor.
Without drawing any conclusions, IAEA Director General Mohamed
ElBaradei also noted in the report issued last week that his
agency's inspectors had found uranium particles at the al-Kibar site
during a first visit in June.
Syria has stated that al-Kibar was a conventional military site
and that the uranium must have originated from munitions used by the
Israeli air force to destroy the installation.
The IAEA board is also set to discuss ElBaradei's latest report
on Iran, in which he stated his concern that the country was not
answering open questions on past studies that were possibly related
to nuclear weapons development.
The report also noted that Iran was continuing to enrich uranium,
defying United Nations Security Council which has passed sanctions
to pressure the country into suspending this activity.
While the Iranian leadership insists it needs enriched uranium to
fuel its nuclear power plant, the Security Council is concerned that
the nuclear material could one day be used for nuclear weapons.
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