DAMASCUS — Syria yesterday denied a British newspaper report that Israel had seized North Korean nuclear material in a commando raid on a secret military site in Syria earlier this month. “This story is totally false. It’s the fruit of ill will and does not merit a response,” Information Minister Muhsin Bilal was quoted as saying on the Cham-press website, which is close to the Syrian regime.
London’s Sunday Times quoted sources as saying that elite Israeli commando forces had seized North Korean nuclear material during a raid on the secret site before bombing it on Sept. 6.
“The Sunday Times is a serious newspaper, however it has peddled an Israeli story invented about the Israeli aggression against Syria,” Bilal said, referring to the Sept. 6 airstrike, which has been condemned by Damascus. The communist regime in North Korea has denied collaborating on nuclear activity with Syria, while Israel has maintained an official silence on the raid.
Meanwhile, an Israeli raid on Syria has all but finished off chances for resuming peace talks between the two foes, Syrian officials said yesterday. In the first clear reaction to the Sept 6. Israeli airstrike, officials told Reuters Syria was wary of retaliating against Israel given the military superiority of the Jewish state and because of lack of Arab support.
Another reason was Damascus’ changing relationship with Russia, an ally during the Communist era. The officials were dismissive about any new peace talks, which collapsed in 2000 over the scope of an Israeli pullout from the Golan Heights, a 1,750 square km plateau that the Jewish state captured from Syria in 1967.
