Arms Control & Non Proliferation
Documents & Texts from America.gov
04 June 2008
Syria Agrees to U.N. Inspection of Former Nuclear Site
By Merle D. Kellerhals Jr.
Staff Writer
Washington -- The United States welcomed plans by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to conduct a three-day inquiry into a defunct Syrian nuclear reactor built with North Korean help, but cautioned Syrian officials to allow the U.N. inspectors access to all suspected areas where nuclear activity may have been conducted.
IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei told the agency's governing board at a June 2 meeting in Vienna, Austria, that Syria had given inspectors permission to visit June 22-24.
"The United States welcomes the announcement that the IAEA will visit Syria and stands ready to support a rigorous IAEA investigation into Syria's clandestine nuclear activities," Ambassador Gregory Schulte said June 4 from the U.S. mission in Vienna. "It is important that Syria fully cooperate with the IAEA and in no way hinder the investigation either by further delaying an inspection or by refusing the IAEA unfettered access to any site requested by the IAEA."
White House press secretary Dana Perino announced in April that Syria did not tell the IAEA it was building a nuclear reactor in a remote area of eastern Syria with help from North Korean nuclear scientists and engineers. After the facility was destroyed in September 2007, Syria also made every effort to bury the evidence, she said.
"This cover-up only served to reinforce our confidence that this reactor was not intended for peaceful purposes," Perino said in a prepared statement April 24.
ElBaradei confirmed in Vienna April 25 that his office has been given the U.S. intelligence and other intelligence that the reactor was not yet operational and no nuclear material had been introduced into it.
Syria has been a party to the 144-nation Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) since 1963 and has operated one small research reactor that is subject to regular IAEA inspections. The NPT requires nations to report promptly any nuclear development activities.
Syrian Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Ibrahim Othman told an Arab League meeting outside an IAEA governor's meeting June 3 that the inspectors would be permitted access to the al-Kibar site, but access to other sites suggested by the United States would not be permitted.
The nuclear reactor under construction near al-Kibar, along the eastern edge of the Euphrates River in the Dayr az Zawr province, was destroyed in an Israeli air strike September 6, 2007, a senior U.S. intelligence official said during an April 24 White House briefing. Syria destroyed what remained of the reactor building with a massive demolition on October 10, 2007, to remove all evidence of the reactor's existence, a White House official said.
U.S. intelligence shows that Syria was building a gas-cooled, graphite-moderated nuclear reactor that was nearing operational capability in August 2007, and that it was capable of producing plutonium for nuclear weapons, an intelligence official said.
The only country that has built that type of reactor in the past 35 years is North Korea, intelligence officials said. And the Syrian reactor was built on the same design as the Yongbyon plutonium power reactor in North Korea.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph Biden said that unless it can be confirmed that North Korea no longer is in the nuclear proliferation business, sanctions should not be lifted. North Korea tested a nuclear device in October 2006.
"Our goals are, and must remain, both shutting down North Korea's nuclear programs and ensuring that North Korea does not transfer dangerous technology to other irresponsible states," Biden said in a prepared statement.
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