Alleged Syrian nuclear site bombed by Israel in 2007
Photo: AFP
IAEA Director Mohamed ElBaradei
Photo: AFP
IAEA governors at odds over Syria bid for atom aid
China, Russia object to 'political interference' in agency's aid program for civilian nuclear energy development, while US, France, Canada and the EU say Syria's bid for UN aid in planning nuclear power plant while it is being probed over proliferation concerns 'inappropriate'
Western nations clashed with Russia, China and developing states on Monday over whether to grant Syria's bid for UN aid in planning a nuclear power plant while it is under investigation for alleged covert atomic work.
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China, Russia and developing nations on the governing board disagreed, objecting to "political interference" in the agency's aid program for civilian nuclear energy development.
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency urged the policymaking board to clear the project, saying Syria's IAEA membership rights should not be curbed as long as it was not proved to have pursued nuclear weaponry in secret.
Western nations were alarmed by an IAEA report last week saying a Syrian building bombed by Israel in 2007 bore similarities to a nuclear reactor and inspectors had found striking amounts of uranium particles in desert sands there.
The findings were not enough to conclude a covert reactor of North Korean design meant to produce plutonium for atom bombs was once there, as US Intelligence suggests, the report said.
But it said further investigation at the site and visits to three others as well as more Syrian transparency were needed.
Syria has said all four locations are conventional military sites, the uranium came from missiles Israel used in the bombing and that wider, intrusive IAEA access was unacceptable on national security grounds, noting its state of war with Israel.
The issue causing a rare open schism in the IAEA board was a "technical and economic feasibility and site selection" study drafted by the IAEA Secretariat for a nuclear power station in Syria. It would cost $350,000 and run from 2009 to 2011.
'No proof at this time of Syrian non-compliance'
This was one of eight technical cooperation (TC) projects in Syria of the sort the IAEA does in many member states seeking to develop peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
The seven others had to do with medical or farming uses and faced no objection. More than 600 TC projects in all were up for approval later this week at the governors' year-end meeting.
Diplomats said the United States, France and Canada said the mere fact Syria was being probed over proliferation concerns meant that approving the plant study would be inappropriate.
In response, IAEA Director Mohamed ElBaradei noted there was no proof at this time of Syrian "non-compliance" with nuclear safeguards commitments and a country being "under investigation" was not legal grounds for denying civilian nuclear aid.
The intelligence is unverified and in "Iraq's case such claims were bonkers (mad)", Diplomats there quoted him as saying. US assertions Saddam Hussein had a doomsday weapons program led to the 2003 invasion of Iraq but proved unfounded.
Diplomats said ElBaradei suggested the Western stance was interfering with the agency's mandate to work professionally and impartially to foster peaceful nuclear energy for development.
The board normally decides issues by consensus, and votes are almost unheard of. The majority of board members are non-Western states but funding for TC projects comes mainly from Western coffers.
In 2006, governors decided by consensus to strip Iran of an IAEA safety design study at a heavy-water reactor project over concerns the plant could be secretly used to make plutonium. Iran says it will make radio-isotopes for medical care there.
But that decision was legally more clear-cut since Iran was already under UN sanctions over non-compliance with IAEA rules for failing to declare sensitive nuclear activity and denying inspectors full access to verify it was for peaceful purposes.
Unlike Syria, Iran has an active nuclear fuel production program. It has defied UN demands to suspend the work or open up to an IAEA inquiry into alleged atomic bomb research.
