Global Security Newswire

VIENNA, Austria -- The United States and the European Union today urged Syria to drop the veil of secrecy surrounding its nuclear operations, which Western observers believe included a facility that was bombed by Israel in 2007 (see GSN, Feb. 19).

"The existence of undeclared nuclear sites seemingly intended for nonpeaceful purposes, and the possibility of safeguards violations including undeclared nuclear material, are matters of grave concern to the entire international community," U.S. envoy Glyn Davies said this morning during a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors.

"Over the past two years, we have noticed a troubling pattern in Syria's behavior related to Dair Alzour; the more evidence the agency uncovers that Syria was engaged in serious safeguards violations, the more Syria has tried to actively hinder the agency's investigation," he told the 35-nation panel.

In a three-page statement the European Union said it is "essential" that Damascus "provide the agency with all requested clarifications and access to all locations and documentation."

Speaking at the opening of the board meeting here Monday, new IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano called on Syria to provide greater cooperation with the agency's review of the nation's atomic activities (see GSN, March 1).

A safeguards report issued last month said Damascus has refused to cooperate with the IAEA investigation of a suspected nuclear reactor destroyed in an Israeli airstrike. The document also affirmed for the first time Western concerns that the destroyed plant at Dair Alzour housed an unfinished nuclear reactor.

Inspectors from the U.N. nuclear watchdog have only been allowed to visit the facility once, and have been barred from examining three other sites that could be related to Dair Alzour. The IAEA inspection in June 2008 turned up traces of man-made, or anthropogenic, uranium particles at the site, which was razed following the attack. Damascus has since rejected requests for access to the site and information on its construction, according to Amano.

The United States suspects the site was being constructed with support from North Korea to produce weapon-grade uranium. Syria has refuted the charge, saying the facility was a conventional military installation and that the Middle Eastern nation has no nuclear weapons program.

Syria has also not answered questions regarding a known atomic site, the Miniature Neutron Source Reactor, the monitoring agency report stated.

A diplomat attending this morning's session said that Syria's envoy to the agency, Bassam al-Sabbagh, told the closed-door meeting that Damascus could not verify the nature of the material dropped on the Dair Alzour facility, suggesting that Israel planted the nuclear material on the site.

The Syrian diplomat referred to "Israeli airplanes that have overflown that site and dropped things, and material," one source told Deutsche Presse-Agentur. Davies called the claim "slightly desperate," the news agency reported.

Damascus has previously said that the uranium traces originated with the Israeli munitions used to destroy the facility. The U.N. nuclear agency has largely dismissed that claim.

While the Board of Governors did not take up a resolution referring the Syrian matter -- or concerns over Iran's nuclear activities -- to the U.N. Security Council in New York, the it could do so at its next conference here in June (see GSN, March 3).

Before the board meeting ended today, Davies also highlighted the importance of the upcoming nuclear security summit scheduled for April 12 and 13 in Washington. The conference is intended for countries to consider strategies to achieve the Obama administration's pledge to secure all vulnerable nuclear material in four years. More than 40 nations have been invited to the summit.

"We hope that leaders of invited nations will announced specific steps they are taking nationally to secure and consolidate nuclear materials and minimize the use of weapons usable materials in the civilian sector," Davies told the Board of Governors.