The chief UN nuclear inspector said his agency’s Syria probe has been hampered because key satellite images of an alleged nuclear reactor bombed by Israel are inexplicably unavailable on the market.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei did not point any fingers on Thursday in the “baffling” failure of his agency’s efforts to obtain the images of the Syrian site immediately after it was bombed by Israel last year.
But diplomats familiar with the IAEA’s Syria investigation said agency officials were considering several scenarios, including the possibility that Syria or other nations with an interest in a cover-up had bought the photos and all rights to them from commercial satellite companies.
ElBaradei’s comments at the start of a two-day full meeting of the IAEA’s 35-nation board partially reflected the focus of the gathering — suspicions about Syria and Iran’s nuclear activities.
On Iran, ElBaradei told the meeting that he “cannot exclude the existence of possible military dimensions to Iran’s nuclear program.”
The US and the EU both expressed alarm at Tehran’s defiance of UN Security Council resolutions meant to curb its suspected nuclear activities. Ali Ashgar Soltanieh, Iran’s IAEA representative, accused Washington and its allies of dragging it before the Security Council as part of a “hidden agenda.”
In the case of Syria, ElBaradei said his “agency was unable to obtain commercial satellite imagery” of the site immediately after the bombing, adding: “It is regrettable, and indeed baffling, that imagery for this critical period ... was not available.”
Syrian nuclear chief Ibrahim Othman was dismissive, telling The Associated Press: “The theory that we bought all the photos is nonsense.”
The IAEA often turns to commercial images beyond any spy satellite photos shared by governments.
But the two nations most likely to have satellite intelligence were unlikely to have provided it with immediate information. Israel still has not confirmed it was behind the strike, while the US waited for more than six months before sharing knowledge with the IAEA.
The possibility that commercial companies simply did not know where to look immediately after the bombing was raised by David Albright, whose Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security closely tracks suspected secret proliferators.
“The United States and Israel went to great lengths to prevent others from finding out where the site was,” said Albright, whose institute was the first to publish commercial satellite images of the site more than a year ago and identify it as a likely North Korean-model nuclear reactor.
“No one knew where the site was immediately after the bombing,” said Albright, whose institute published photos taken nearly a month before the Israeli strike on Sept. 6 last year.
Albright also said that ElBaradei was initially skeptical of the US assertions, which could have led Washington and Israel to withhold satellite photos.
“Why would US intelligence give photos to ElBaradei if he was predisposed not to believe” that they showed a secret nuclear reactor, Albright said in an interview.
Meanwhile, a senior diplomat familiar with the Syria probe suggested that the comments by ElBaradei were at least partially out of date. He said the agency had “very recently” been able to locate commercial images showing the site after the Israeli strike.
IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said the agency would not comment on the issue.
All of the diplomats asked for anonymity in exchange for speaking to The Associated Press because their information was privileged.
DEBT BREAK: Friedrich Merz has vowed to do ‘whatever it takes’ to free up more money for defense and infrastructure at a time of growing geopolitical uncertainty Germany’s likely next leader Friedrich Merz was set yesterday to defend his unprecedented plans to massively ramp up defense and infrastructure spending in the Bundestag as lawmakers begin debating the proposals. Merz unveiled the plans last week, vowing his center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) bloc and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) — in talks to form a coalition after last month’s elections — would quickly push them through before the end of the current legislature. Fraying Europe-US ties under US President Donald Trump have fueled calls for Germany, long dependent on the US security umbrella, to quickly
RARE EVENT: While some cultures have a negative view of eclipses, others see them as a chance to show how people can work together, a scientist said Stargazers across a swathe of the world marveled at a dramatic red “Blood Moon” during a rare total lunar eclipse in the early hours of yesterday morning. The celestial spectacle was visible in the Americas and Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as in the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa. The phenomenon happens when the sun, Earth and moon line up, causing our planet to cast a giant shadow across its satellite. But as the Earth’s shadow crept across the moon, it did not entirely blot out its white glow — instead the moon glowed a reddish color. This is because the
Romania’s electoral commission on Saturday excluded a second far-right hopeful, Diana Sosoaca, from May’s presidential election, amid rising tension in the run-up to the May rerun of the poll. Earlier this month, Romania’s Central Electoral Bureau barred Calin Georgescu, an independent who was polling at about 40 percent ahead of the rerun election. Georgescu, a fierce EU and NATO critic, shot to prominence in November last year when he unexpectedly topped a first round of presidential voting. However, Romania’s constitutional court annulled the election after claims of Russian interference and a “massive” social media promotion in his favor. On Saturday, an electoral commission statement
Chinese authorities increased pressure on CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd over its plan to sell its Panama ports stake by sharing a second newspaper commentary attacking the deal. The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office on Saturday reposted a commentary originally published in Ta Kung Pao, saying the planned sale of the ports by the Hong Kong company had triggered deep concerns among Chinese people and questioned whether the deal was harming China and aiding evil. “Why were so many important ports transferred to ill-intentioned US forces so easily? What kind of political calculations are hidden in the so-called commercial behavior on the
RSS