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UN nuclear body presses Syria for 'maximum transparency'
AFP - Friday, November 28
VIENNA (AFP) - - The UN atomic watchdog Thursday pressed Syria for "maximum transparency" in a probe into allegations that Damascus had been building a covert nuclear reactor until it was bombed by US planes.
The agency also expressed concern at the deadlock in its long-running investigation into Iran's contested nuclear programme.
"Regrettably, the agency has not been able to make substantive progress" on allegations that Iran been involved in past nuclear weaponisation work, International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei said.
ElBaradei was speaking on the first day of a two-day meeting here with both the Syrian and Iranian nuclear dossiers in the spotlight.
Iran came up for discussion on Thursday afternoon, while Syria was not scheduled to be debated until Friday.
The board was not scheduled to start its debate on Syria until Friday, but ElBaradei, in his opening address, pressed Damascus to show "maximum transparency" in the probe, which was launched in June.
The United States claims that a remote site in the Syrian desert called Al-Kibar had been a covert nuclear reactor close to completion, until it was razed to the ground by Israeli bombs in September 2007.
Damascus has repeatedly dismissed the allegations, insisting that Al-Kibar was a disused military facility.
In its first report on the matter, the IAEA found that Al-Kibar did indeed appear to share some of the characteristics of a nuclear reactor and that traces of uranium had been found there.
Western states have also expressed "profound concern" at the lack of progress on the Iran dossier, despite nearly six years of intensive investigations.
The IAEA had complained that the Islamic republic "has not offered any cooperation with the agency" since September.
Tehran "has not yet provided the requested information, or access to the requested documentation, locations or individuals," said the report, released last week.
That one sentence "encapsulates two months of total unresponsiveness from Iran," said British Ambassador, Simon Smith, speaking on behalf of the EU-3 of Britain, Germany and France.
Washington's envoy to the IAEA, Gregory Schulte, told the 35-member board that the gridlock -- coupled with the announcement on Wednesday that Tehran had increased the number of uranium-enriching centrifuges in operation to more than 5,000 -- was "cause for alarm" and "grave concern."
Focussing on Syria, ElBaradei stressed the need for follow-up investigations.
"It is important that Syria provide the agency with documentation in support of its statements concerning the nature and function of the destroyed building. Syria should also agree, as a transparency measure, to let the agency visit other locations."
The Egyptian-born diplomat said the watchdog hoped to confront Syria with satellite imagery of the bombed site soon.
The IAEA "has recently been able to secure agreement to show Syria imagery from member state satellites of the site shortly after the bombing, and will do so at the earliest opportunity," he said.
He did not specify which member states had come forward with the imagery.
But ElBaradei said no commercial satellite imagery -- as opposed to intelligence imagery -- of the site was yet available.
"For its assessment of the site immediately after the bombing, the agency was unable to obtain commercial satellite imagery," ElBaradei said.
"It is regrettable, and indeed baffling, that imagery for this critical period, which would have been most valuable in helping to clarify the nature of the building that was destroyed, was not available," he said.
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An IAEA flag in front of the International Atomic Energy Agency headquarters in Vienna. The UN atomic watchdog Thursday pressed Syria for "maximum transparency" in a probe into allegations that Damascus had been building a covert nuclear reactor until it was bombed by US planes.
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