WarSclerotic

Syria takes the hot seat as UN atomic watchdog looks into alleged illicit nuclear work.

Al Arabiya

Monday, 06 June 2011

The UN atomic energy watchdog opens a weeklong meeting in Vienna Monday, with the United States and its Western allies looking to pass a resolution against Syria over its alleged illicit nuclear activity.

The traditional June session of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35-member board of governors has a heavy agenda, ranging from the upcoming two-year budget to the nuclear disaster in Japan.

But it will once again be the long-running investigations into illicit nuclear programs in both Iran and Syria that will be the main focus of attention.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has received further information regarding activities that “seem to point to the existence” of possible military dimensions to Iran’s nuclear program, the agency’s head said on Monday.

“There are indications that certain of these activities may have continued until recently,” Yukiya Amano said in a speech to the agency’s board.

However while Iran has tended to be the dominant issue at board meetings in the past, Syria looks set to take the hot seat this time round after Mr. Amano stated unequivocally for the first time his conviction that a remote desert site that was flattened by Israeli bombs in September 2007 was “very likely” to have been an undeclared covert nuclear reactor.

The IAEA has been investigating the allegations for three years now, but Syria has so far refused to allow UN inspectors access to locations, data or individuals who could throw some light on the matter.

Damascus has always insisted that the site, known as Dair Alzour, was a non-nuclear military installation but it has provided no evidence so far to back this up.

Aside from a one-off visit in June 2008, Syria has refused to allow IAEA inspectors access.

Mr. Amano defended his decision to go public with his recent assessment that Syria had been building an undeclared nuclear reactor at the remote desert site.

“The Syrian government was given ample time by the agency to cooperate fully concerning the Dair Alzour site, but did not do so,” Mr. Amano said at the closed-door meeting.

“Nevertheless, we had obtained enough information to draw a conclusion. I judged it appropriate to inform member states of our conclusion at this stage as it was in no one’s interest to let this situation drag on indefinitely,” Mr. Amano said, according to a copy of his speech released to journalists.

“I am confident about our conclusion and I look forward to engaging further with Syria to resolve related outstanding issues,” Mr. Amano said.

Mr. Amano’s unprecedented remarks are aimed at turning up the heat on Syria, which is increasingly frustrating the IAEA with its point-blank refusal to cooperate.

The United States, in particular, has seized on his comments as an opportunity to find Syria in “non-compliance” with its international obligations and refer it to the UN Security Council in New York.

Western diplomats believe there is sufficient support on the 35-member board for the resolution to be passed, although it would be “naive” to expect it to be carried unanimously, a number of them said.

A corresponding resolution looks certain to win western backing, but diplomats believe it would “naive” to expect unanimous support from the 35-member board.

Iran, too, will be in the spotlight after Amano, in his latest report, complained that the Islamic republic is continuing to stockpile low-enriched uranium, in defiance of multiple UN sanctions, and refusing to answer allegations of possible military dimensions to its contested nuclear program.

Iran responded at the end of last month, but diplomats who said they have seen the six-page reply said it contained nothing substantively new and, in the view of one diplomat, only confirmed that Tehran is “unwilling to change course from its policy of non-cooperation.”

(Sara Ghasemilee, a senior editor at Al Arabiya English, can be reached at sara.ghasemilee@mbc.net)

 

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