By KUNA,
Paris : France declined Monday to comment strong criticism of the United States by the Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Mohammed El-Baradei, who reacted strongly to not having been informed about US intelligence information on alleged Syrian-North Korean nuclear cooperation.
El-Baradei said that statements by the US, which were subsequently echoed by France, undermined the role of the UN nuclear watchdog and he cautioned unilateral action by members was counterproductive.
The US claimed it had evidence Syria was building a nuclear reactor with North Korean assistance at a site 50 kilometres from the Iraq border that was attacked last September by Israeli warplanes.
Syria denies the accusations and El-Baradei said that the way the affair was handled undercut his ability to operate in such circumstances.
France issued a call last week for Syria and North Korea to come clean on any cooperation in the nuclear field and urged Syria to reveal “past and present” activities in this area.
Asked to comment El-Baradeis reaction, French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said that “El Baradeis statements, which were reacting to information from an American source, do not call for comment on our part.” Relations between the Western nations, among them the US and France, and El-Baradei have sometimes been at odds in the past as the UN appointee has made it clear he wants to operate freely and without political pressure, especially in dealing with Iran.
Western powers have accused El-Baradei privately of being too weak with Iran and of accepting too many compromises in the scope and timing of Irans nuclear cooperation.
The Egyptian head of the UN nuclear watchdog, who leaves his post at the end of the year, says he has made substantial progress with the Iranian case.
The French spokeswoman noted that the channel of communications between France and the IAEA was functioning well, but she did not specifically mention relations with the Agencys Director-General.
She said that beyond the latest issues, “we maintain a constant and close dialogue with the IAEA.”