Syria on Saturday declared that UN nuclear sleuths were barred from revisiting the site of a suspected atomic reactor that was bombed by Israeli jets last year.
The decision dealt a blow to efforts by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to follow up on intelligence made available to its experts asserting that Syria was hiding a nuclear program that could be used to make weapons.
Justifying the move, a Syrian Foreign Ministry official told reporters that its agreement with the UN agency — which already toured the site in June — allowed only one visit.
The Syrian statement appeared to be prompted by comments made by diplomats accredited to the Vienna, Austria-based IAEA, who said earlier on Saturday that Damascus late last month had turned down a request from the agency for a follow-up trip.
A return to the bombed facility — alleged by the US to have been a nearly completed plutonium-producing reactor — would have been on the IAEA agenda. Plutonium can be used as the fissile core of warheads.
But a second trip also was meant to focus on the broader issue of whether North Korea was involved in building the alleged Syrian program.
As well, IAEA officials would have pressed for permission to visit three other sites purportedly linked to the alleged reactor destroyed by the Israelis — although Syria has already said that those locations are off limits because they are in restricted military areas.
The diplomats said the agency investigation is based on intelligence provided to the IAEA by the US, Israel and a third country they declined to identify.
Syria denies it has hidden nuclear facilities.
In Vienna, a senior diplomat said that “the Syrians said that a visit at this time was inopportune.”
That appeared to leave open the possibility of a later inspection tour. But one of the other diplomats said members of the Syrian mission to the IAEA were spreading the word among other missions that additional trips beyond the one in June were unlikely.
Syria fears the IAEA probe could lead to a massive investigation similar to the probe Iran has been subjected to for more than five years — and to related fallout. Iran is under three sets of UN sanctions because of its refusal to heed Security Council demands to curb its nuclear activities.
IAEA experts came back on June 25 from a four-day visit, carrying environmental samples from the Al Kibar site hit by Israel last September. Those are now being evaluated but the results might be inconclusive.
As intelligence said radioactive material had not yet been introduced into the alleged reactor before it was hit by Israel, swipes taken in search of radioactive traces were unlikely to have been of use.
The inspectors also looked for minute quantities of graphite, a cooling element in the type of North Korean prototype that was allegedly being built with help from Pyongyang. Such a reactor contains hundreds of tons of graphite and any major explosion would have sent dust over the immediate area.
But if the Syrians were interested in a cover-up they would have scoured the region to bury, wash away and otherwise remove any such traces.
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