VIENNA — Efforts to investigate alleged Syrian nuclear-weapon activities have been slowed by the recent killing of an intermediary working with international inspectors, the top U.N. nuclear official revealed today (see GSN, Sept. 23).
The announcement came in the final seconds of this week’s meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35-nation governing board, which had just completed a debate over the agency’s investigation into a Syrian facility that U.S. officials alleged to be a nuclear reactor that was destroyed in a Sept. 6, 2007, Israeli air strike. U.S. intelligence officials later offered evidence that the site near al-Kibar was a nearly operational plutonium production reactor intended to fuel a nuclear-weapon program (see GSN, April 25).
The U.S. envoy to the agency, Gregory Schulte, today asked ElBaradei to provide “a comprehensive report” on his investigation before the board’s next meeting in November. Schulte criticized Syria for rejecting an agency request to revisit the nation after a June inspection.
Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei, however, asked for patience from the board.
“So far we have seen good cooperation. The reason that Syria has been late in providing additional information [is] that our interlocutor has been assassinated in Syria,” he told the board. “So that has created some complication.”
The Syrian official was Brig. Gen. Mohammad Suleiman, a Western diplomat confirmed today. Suleiman was shot in the head at his seaside villa on Aug. 2 by a sniper positioned on an offshore boat, Reuters reported last month.
ElBaradei also criticized the United States and Israel for failing to notify the agency of their suspicions before the Israeli attack.
“I am quite concerned that with the gratuitous use of force,” he added. “Once the evidence has been eliminated, it becomes quite difficult for us to establish the facts.”
“We are in a very awkward situation,” he continued, “because the corpse is gone. We are now in a state where we have to reconstruct a facility that is not there.”
His report, ElBaradei emphasized, would be prepared when it was complete and no earlier.
“The system will not be politicized, and I ask all of you not to jump the gun. Give us the time and you will get an assessment as fast as we can and when we are ready,” he told board members.
ElBaradei’s comments brought a dramatic end to an otherwise predictable discussion of the investigation into Syria’s alleged reactor.
Schulte pressed for more Syrian cooperation.
“Syria’s concealment efforts, combined with the limits Damascus has placed on the IAEA’s investigation, beg the question: What does Syria have to hide? Can we be confident there are no other undeclared activities?” Schulte asked the board today.
Earlier, the U.S. officials said the reactor appeared to be a North Korean design, suggesting it would be fueled with natural uranium and moderated with graphite. The facility was never declared to IAEA officials, and Syria has denied any nuclear ambitions while remaining generally quiet after the bombing.
Testing on samples taken by IAEA officials in June have so far shown no tell-tale signs of uranium or graphite, a Western diplomat confirmed today, suggesting three possibilities: 1) Israel bombed the wrong site; 2) Syria effectively cleaned up the site over the nine months that passed before inspectors visited; or 3) Syria has not tried to build a nuclear reactor.
However, the evidence offered by U.S. officials in April was compelling if the photographs are truly from the bombed facility, and Schulte today said Syria appears “to have violated its [IAEA] safeguards agreement.”
Syria’s envoy to the agency today denied any covert nuclear activities while rejecting any further IAEA visits until complete test results have been returned from the first inspection, Deutsche Press-Agentur reported.
He dismissed the U.S. pressure.
“It’s the International Atomic Energy Agency, not the American Atomic Energy Agency,” said Syrian Ambassador Mohammad Badi Khattab.
For his part, ElBaradei called for more cooperation from all parties.
“Every state… has [a] duty to report, naturally, the construction of a nuclear facility, including Syria of course, but I also assure all those who spoke … that all of you have a duty share information with us … to enable to do our verification responsibly,” he told the board.