Vienna - International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief
Mohamed ElBaradei called on Syria Thursday to allow further
inspections of the country's alleged nuclear programme.
Last week, Syria's top nuclear official Ibrahim Othman indicated
further visits to the alleged reactor site at al-Kibar, which was
bombed by Israel last year, were unlikely, and that other sites could
not be shown to IAEA inspectors as they were military installations.
Asking for 'maximum transparency' from Syria, ElBaradei told the
IAEA board of governors that his agency was capable of developing
modalities to protect military secrets, while letting his inspectors
carry out their work.
IAEA inspectors first visited al-Kibar in June, after having
received intelligence information from the US indicating
Syria was in the process of secretly building a reactor, possibly
with North Korean help.
ElBaradei on Thursday summed up his report on Syria from last week
by saying that 'while it cannot be excluded that the building in
question was intended for non-nuclear use, the features of the
building ... are similar to what may be found in connection with a
reactor site.'
Syria has stated that al-Kibar was a conventional military site
and that uranium particles found there by IAEA inspectors must have
originated from munitions used by the Israeli air force in September
2007 to destroy the installation.
The head of the IAEA also called on Israel to provide information
in order to verify Syria's claim.
USA
Your Talkback on this Story