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UN Inspectors Examine Site of Alleged Syrian Nuclear Facility

by Rob Walker | June 23, 2008 at 11:58 am | 156 views | 1 comment

Nine months after it was bombed to rubble by Israeli air strikes, a UN inspections team is headed to the site to check for signs of the alleged nuclear reactor that was being built there.

The US and Israel claim the site was a nearly-complete functioning nuclear reactor, which Syria strongly denies. They claim it was an ordinary military building under construction.

After nine months of time where they could have moved or hidden any evidence, let alone the red tape and heavy pressure from the Syrian government, it is unlikely the inspectors will find anything.

The inspection is being done in absolute secrecy, with the Syrian government warning against a long, drawn-out investigation.

Read previous NowPublic coverage here.

U.N. experts began probing allegations Monday that Syria has a hidden nuclear program, as Damascus imposed strict secrecy on the visit, warning the U.N. not to drag it into a drawn-out investigation like the standoff with Iran.
The Syrian government's silence was a sign of the deep sensitivities over the allegations, which Damascus denies but fears could be used by Washington to rally international pressure against it.

The U.N. inspectors' main focus is the Al Kibar facility — a building in the remote eastern desert that Israeli jets destroyed in September and which American intelligence officials have claimed was a nearly completed plutonium-producing reactor.

United Nations nuclear inspectors were in northeast Syria on Monday, examining the site of an alleged nuclear facility that was bombed by Israel nine months ago.
The visit is being held under secrecy, with foreign reporters barred from following the inspectors to Al Kibar in the middle of the Syrian desert.

"There has been very little information about what is going on," the CBC's Nahlah Ayed said, reporting from nearby Beirut.

"We are probably not going to hear any leaks about what they are finding," she added, noting that information will likely only be available when the UN International Atomic Energy Agency meets in Vienna in September.

U.N. nuclear inspectors on Monday examined an alleged nuclear site in Syria that the United States says housed a secretly built reactor nearing completion when it was bombed by Israel nine months ago, a diplomat said.
Syria denies it has any covert nuclear weapons programme and says the Israelis hit an ordinary military structure being built at al-Kibar, in the northeastern desert.

United Nations inspectors are heading to Syria to investigate U.S. allegations that Damascus was building a nuclear reactor. Washington alleged that the reactor was built for nuclear weapons purposes, before it was destroyed in an Israeli air strike.
The three-man team from the IAEA includes two nuclear technology experts familiar with Syria. Syria denies the accusations, saying the remote desert target was an ordinary military building under construction. Unveiling the truth is likely to be difficult nine months after the Israeli attack.