Suspicions loom as the International Atomic Energy Agency finds uranium particles at a site Syria says was a traditional military facility, reports Bassel Oudat from Damascus A recent report issued by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) revealed that uranium traces had been found in a second site near Damascus, additional to the alleged nuclear reactor site Al-Kibar in northern Syria. The IAEA made it clear that it doesn't believe Syria's claims about Al-Kibar, which was bombed by Israel in September 2007. Damascus says the site was a traditional military facility, not a nuclear reactor. This is the second time man-made uranium has been discovered in Syria. IAEA inspectors found the particles in a small reactor in Damascus used for teaching and research that is inspected by the IAEA annually. It is used to conduct examinations and analyses of medical and agricultural products, to purify water, and to produce steel, but it does not have any known capacity to produce nuclear energy. The IAEA says that the kind of uranium found there shouldn't have been there, and that it differs from the kind of nuclear material found in the declared Syrian store. The IAEA says that it asked the Syrian authorities to offer explanation for the presence of this uranium, and according to its report, Syria responded to the IAEA's questions on the uranium and its source, but did not respond to many of the other questions posed by the agency on the issue. Syria has not offered any justification for the presence of the particles or for their origin, and has refused to discuss related satellite images. It has suggested that the IAEA's analyses are wrong, and that the satellite images presented by Washington were edited. IAEA Director-General Mohamed El-Baradei wrote in the report submitted to member states that the information submitted by Syria until now does not sufficiently support its assurances over the nature of the site. The IAEA is investigating the veracity of reports that Syria has nearly completed building a nuclear reactor of North Korean design with the aim of producing plutonium that can be used to create a nuclear bomb. The IAEA says the uranium particles found at Al-Kibar in the Deir Al-Zur region, the related satellite images, and the purchasing activities of Syria all still need to be clarified. In the report submitted to the IAEA Board of Governors, it is stated that: "in order for the IAEA to complete its evaluation, Syria must cooperate more transparently." Analysis of environmental samples taken from the same site has shown the presence of additional uranium particles produced chemically and not listed among the types of nuclear materials publicly acknowledged by Syria to be in its possession. Syria says that the source of these uranium particles is the missiles that were used to destroy Al-Kibar site during the 2007 Israeli raid. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Al-Muallim has said that both the original destroyed facility and the current reconfigured one at the site are "military facilities with no relation to any type of nuclear activity". Israel has sent a letter to the IAEA rejecting Syria's statements. El-Baradei says that General Mohamed Suleiman, who was killed in Syria under uncertain circumstances in August 2007, was the IAEA's interlocutor. He had accompanied inspectors to the site, and his death has only complicated matters. According to the IAEA, El-Baradei's report on the continued investigations of Al-Kibar and the new suspected site near Damascus will be a priority on the agenda of the regular, biannual Board of Governors meeting scheduled for mid-June. Yet observers don't expect the board to reach a conclusion on the matter given divisions between IAEA members. Israel has criticised what it considers the "inability" of the IAEA to effectively monitor the nuclear programmes of Iran and Syria. The Israeli Nuclear Energy Committee holds that the international agency's report "supports suspicions that Syria is trying to conceal evidence of covert nuclear activities that have taken place in the Deir Al-Zur site in the country's east... Israel calls for a correct and credible investigation of Syrian political manoeuvres." Israel says -- and some IAEA inspectors agree -- that the Syrians "exerted great efforts to change the nature of the place" and removed all indications that "might suggest that there was a North Korean nuclear reactor on the site". According to some IAEA inspectors, satellite images show that hasty efforts to remove traces were carried out. Some IAEA inspectors say that Syria recently agreed to an IAEA delegation visiting the Syrian site that was bombed, but that it reneged when the IAEA informed it that the monitors would also inspect two other suspected sites. Syria then changed its position and declined welcoming the delegation, which to some IAEA inspectors confirms that Syria has something to hide, leaving them to suspect that there are a number of other sites in which military-based nuclear activities are taking place. The Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot previously reported that IAEA inspectors believed North Korea had built a factory near the Syrian-Iraqi border in which Syrians are working with plutonium and uranium. It reported a Western intelligence official as saying that following the US invasion of Iraq, a convoy of three large trucks reached the desert facility and is suspected of having carried materials from the nuclear programme former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein had allegedly been trying to develop. The paper wrote that a third facility was located near Damascus. Some circles close to the Syrian government say that bringing up this issue at this particular time is politicisation by the IAEA. They remind observers of the attention given to alleged Iraqi nuclear activity in 2003, and stress that in addition to its political aims, raising this issue now is an attempt to deprive Syria of about $200 million in aid the IAEA Board of Governors is considering offering to it, leading it instead to reject the aid just as it previously rejected aid to Iran. These circles say that the IAEA knows better than anyone else that Syria's scientific, technical, human and logistical capacities are incapable of producing a nuclear programme -- this beyond the fact that Syria has no desire to advance towards nuclear production. Moreover, nuclear arms would be useless in any Syrian-Israeli war since the proximity of Damascus to Tel Aviv means that nuclear arms couldn't be used without causing harm to their user. Syria's government and political circles generally don't seem concerned about the IAEA report. Although they regret that the report submitted to the Board of Governors may deprive them of possible financial or technical aid, especially given their ambitions to develop peaceful uses of nuclear energy, they are not worried about the political outcomes or about sanctions placed by the IAEA or the UN Security Council. The report is speculative and according to the Syrian government is not based on fact. Indeed, since it lacks evidence, it is not sufficient to serve as justification for issuing sanctions of any kind against Syria. At the same time, Syria's relations with European countries are currently normalised and even "warm", as described by Syrian government circles. Syria also believes it is on the verge of reaching an agreement with the US administration on a new roadmap towards normalising their relations, and this further distances the spectre of sanctions for Syria. The paucity of evidence and the breaking of European and US isolation imposed on Syria together form the basis of Syria's reassurance. Some Syrian circles have indirectly pointed out that certain IAEA inspectors and top officials are working to support suspicions of Syria and to create a political uproar unrelated to the IAEA but which serves other parties and political ends. Diplomats in Vienna -- where the IAEA is based -- say that Syria informed the IAEA that it has built a missile facility in the desert region that was bombed by Israel, and that this fact supports the Syrian refusal to allow the IAEA further access for national security reasons. At the same time, however, Syrian officials worry that allowing the IAEA to visit other sites will open new doors that will allow parties within and beyond the agency to send unlimited delegations to Syria, with and without reason. For this reason Syria is refusing to allow visits to other sites.
