Global Security Newswire

Syria said Friday that it would not permit the International Atomic Energy Agency to conduct another inspection of the alleged site of a former nuclear reactor or conduct inspections at other areas of interest, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Nov. 21).

"We will not allow another visit," said Ibrahim Othman, head of Syria's Atomic Energy Commission. He added that Damascus had only promised the agency a single visit to the suspected reactor site, which was bombed by Israel in September 2007.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog released a report Wednesday stating that the alleged facility closely resembled a nuclear reactor and noting that inspectors found significant amounts of processed uranium on the facility's grounds last June.

"Collecting three (uranium) particles from the desert doesn't mean there is a reactor there," Othman told journalists (George Jahn, Associated Press/Google News, Nov. 22).

A Washington-based think tank commended the IAEA report Friday and called on the agency's 35-nation governing board to consider referring the dispute to the U.N. Security Council for possible punitive action. The board is set to meet this week in Vienna.

"The November 19 IAEA report is the latest evidence of the superb technical capabilities of the IAEA staff. Regrettably, however, this work has at times been undercut by IAEA Director General [Mohamed] ElBaradei, who has a tendency to emphasize benign interpretations of ambiguous findings while ignoring mechanisms available for suspected proliferators to provide evidence to the contrary," the Washington Institute of Near East Policy said in an analysis.

"The real shortcoming with the international law approach, however, has been the failure of will by the governments that sit on the IAEA [governing board] and the Security Council. ... Will the [governing board] recommend sanctions if the investigation yields derogatory conclusions or if Syria continues to put forth implausible explanations unsupported by evidence?

"A serious response by the [governing board] would be to warn Syria that failure to resolve the outstanding issues on a timely basis would constitute a violation of Syria's obligations, which the IAEA would have to report to the Security Council for action by that body" (Washington Institute for Near East Policy release, Nov. 21).