VIENNA: The United States has urged the UN nuclear watchdog chief to give a full report on an inquiry into allegations that Syria had a covert program to produce bomb-grade plutonium, diplomats said yesterday.
The International Atomic Energy Agency director briefly summarized the probe, saying it was inconclusive so far, in an address to IAEA governors on Monday, but some diplomats said an initial idea to add a fuller briefing was later dropped.
Syria has denied having a nascent nuclear reactor at a site flattened in an Israeli air raid a year ago or hiding any atomic activity from the IAEA. Its IAEA envoy told Reuters yesterday US accusations Syria was impeding the inquiry were false.
Gregory Schulte, Washington’s IAEA ambassador, told the closed-door meeting of the 35-nation governing board that Syria’s file was grave enough to warrant a written report from IAEA Director Mohamed El-Baradei.
“Given the gravity of this issue for the (nuclear nonproliferation) safeguards regime, the United States looks forward to a comprehensive report for the November board meeting detailing, in writing, the status of the investigation in Syria, and Syria’s cooperation with the investigation,” said Schulte, according to a text of his speech obtained by Reuters.
“Syria’s failure to cooperate with inspectors in a full and timely manner is a matter of serious concern,” he said. The IAEA, whose six-year effort to resolve questions about Iran’s secretive nuclear activity has reached an impasse, began probing Syria in May after Washington forwarded intelligence suggesting that the desert site targeted by Israel was an almost-completed reactor built with North Korean expertise.
Baradei said the first set of environmental swipe samples taken by IAEA investigators given access to the bombed site in June turned up no indications of nuclear material. Diplomats familiar with the probe said the partial results also showed no traces of carbon that could have indicated a North Korean-prototype graphite reactor.
Complete test-sample results from laboratories in several countries will not be available for another few weeks. Schulte said concerns were heightened by commercial satellite imagery published early this year “showing that Syria took measures to conceal activities” at the site.
Syrian Ambassador Badi Khattab said the bombed site was only an unfinished, ordinary military building “that I am 100 percent sure had nothing to do with nuclear activity.” He denied Syria had been obstructing IAEA access or refusing to answer queries.
“It took us less than a month to invite inspectors to the site after the first request came,” he said in an interview.
