By Xinhua,
Vienna : Mohamed ElBaradeit, general director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said Friday in Vienna that the IAEA would investigate the veracity of an information about a suspicious atom reactor in Syria.
He said in a press release that the agency was informed by the U.S. on Thursday that “the installation destroyed by Israel in Syria last September was a nuclear reactor” and IAEA would therefore “with seriousness” investigate it.
He emphasized that according to Syria’s safeguards agreement with the IAEA, Syria should report its planning and construction of any nuclear facility to the agency.
However, the so-called “nuclear reactor” was bombed without informing the agency beforehand, which was “the unilateral use of force by Israel as undermining the due process of verification that is at the heart of the non-proliferation regime,” he noted.
At the meanwhile, ElBaradei was dissatisfied with the fact that the U.S. did not provide the information to IAEA in a “timely manner” either.
According to the ElBaradei’s press release, the reactor was not yet operational and no nuclear material had been introduced into it.
At the same time, Syria denied the construction has anything to do with a nuclear reactor, said the local media in Vienna.