By AFP,
Vienna : The UN atomic watchdog Friday chided the United States for holding back intelligence that Syria was building a secret nuclear reactor with North Korea’s help, but promised to investigate the claim.
The International Atomic Energy Agency also criticized Israel for acting on the allegations and bombing the purported reactor in a raid last September without giving IAEA inspectors an opportunity to investigate.
The agency insisted it was taking seriously the intelligence that was only passed on by the United States on Thursday.
“(We) will treat this information with the seriousness it deserves and will investigate the veracity of the information,” it said in a statement. “Syria has an obligation under its safeguards agreement with the IAEA to report the planning and construction of any nuclear facility.”
Nevertheless, the watchdog was critical of both the US and Israel for their handling of the matter.
IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei “deplores the fact” that the information was not immediately passed on the the Vienna-based watchdog in accordance with the guidelines of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT),” the statement said.
“Under the NPT, the agency has a responsibility to verify any proliferation allegations in a non-nuclear weapon state party to the NPT,” the statement said. “In light of the above, the Director General views the unilateral military action by Israel as undermining the due process of verification that is at the heart of the non-proliferation regime,” it added.
On Thursday, the United States accused Syria of building a secret nuclear reactor with Pyongyang’s help, charging that the facility had a military purpose until Israel destroyed it in a September raid.
The evidence comprised photographs taken inside the reactor showing construction of the shield for the reactor core, and control rods and refuelling ports on top of the reactor.
And officials said the reactor and the building that housed it were similar in design to the North Korean reactor at Yongbyon, which produces plutonium.
Damascus immediately rejected the allegations as “ridiculous”. “The construction of this reactor was a dangerous and potentially destabilizing development for the region and the world.
The Syrian regime must come clean before the world,” said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino. “We have good reason to believe that reactor … was not intended for peaceful purposes.”
A senior US intelligence official said the reactor was destroyed in an Israeli air strike on September 6, 2007 as it was nearing completion, although it had not been loaded with uranium fuel.
“Israel felt that this reactor posed such an existential threat that a different approach was required,” the official said.
France demanded Syria come completely clean on its nuclear activities.
“We had contact yesterday with the Americans, at their initiative, and we were able to exchange analyses and information,” said a spokewoman for the foreign ministry, Pascale Andreani.
“It is indispensible that Syria fully shed light on its nuclear activities past and present, in line with its international obligations, particularly with regard to the IAEA,” Andreani continued.
“The clandestine construction of a nuclear reactor would be a grave infringement by Syria of its NPT obligations,” she said, adding that “we are also very concerned by the proliferation activities of North Korea.”
The revelations could upset six-country talks aimed at dismantling North Korea’s nuclear program, although chief US nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill said the intelligence suggested there was no “ongoing cooperation” between Pyongyang and Syria.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, on a visit to Vienna to open a new building at the UN’s headquarters here, told reporters that he had no concrete information about the allegations just yet.
However, “as a matter of principle, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction is a serious source of great concern,” he said. “The international community must work hard to prevent such proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and related materials”.