Vienna - International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief
Mohamed ElBaradei called on Syria Thursday to allow further
inspections of the country's alleged nuclear programme.
In his statement before the IAEA board of governors, ElBaradei
also urged Iran to clarify open questions on past studies that were
possibly related to the development of nuclear weapons.
The US representative at the IAEA, Gregory Schulte, said scenarios
in which Iran would use its uranium enrichment technology for nuclear
weapons, rather than for nuclear energy, was plausible, given the
country's lack of cooperation with the Vienna-based agency.
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 said his
agency was capable of developing modalities to protect military
secrets, while letting his inspectors carry out their work.
But the IAEA chief also said it was 'regrettable, and indeed
baffling' that his agency had not been able to buy any commercial
satellite images of al-Kibar taken by after the attack in September
2007, but before the site was landscaped by Syria soon afterwards.
A diplomat said that while one member state had provided
low-resolution imagery, the pictures taken by private companies would
have shown more details. One or more governments might have bought up
images taken by companies in eight countries, the diplomat
suggested.
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 reiterated Thursday 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 to destroy
the installation.
The head of the IAEA also called on Israel to provide information
in order to verify Syria's claim.
Regarding Iran, ElBaradei said the country's leaders should
clarify to what extent the documents on alleged nuclear weapons work
which the IAEA received from member states were correct.
The IAEA has not been able to make progress on this issue since
March.
Iran has stated that the allegations were based on forged
documents, and that some of the research projects on missiles and
high explosives were not related to nuclear applications.
US ambassador Schulte said that as Iran had a history of lack of
cooperation with the IAEA, member states should be worried that
country might either one day kick out agency inspectors and use its
enrichment facility to make fuel for a bomb, or that it might do the
same at a secret facility.
According to US intelligence estimates, Iran stopped military
nuclear projects in 2004, but stands ready to resume them.
Iran's defiance of Security Council resolutions calling for a
suspension of enrichment had led to a deficit of confidence that 'is
now so deep that it is difficult to fathom,' Schulte said.
In a joint statement, Britain, France and Germany said Iran's
nuclear programme had made only 'negative and dangerous progress,'
because its continuation 'continues and intensifies a threat to the
stability of a troubled region.'
Together with the US, Russia and China, the three European
countries have offered to talk with Iran about improving business and
political ties if the country halts enrichment.
Iran's ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh told reporters that his
government was open to such negotiations, albeit without
preconditions.
But he also said his country 'shall never give up its inalienable
right for research and peaceful uses of nuclear energy.'
USA
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