Syria Today | Syria denies US allegations over nuclear reactor

Syria denies US allegations over nuclear reactor

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has denied US allegations that a site in the Syrian desert bombed by Israel on September 6 2007 was a nuclear reactor under construction.

During an interview the Qatari daily Al-Watan on April 27, President Assad explained that the Israeli air raid had “hit a military site under construction, not a nuclear site as Israel and America claim”.

On April 24, US national security officials presented intelligence to congressmen which they claim proves that Syria had been constructing a secret nuclear reactor with the help of North Korea until it was destroyed by Israel last year.

Presenting videos and pictures, they said the reactor was being built with the aim of producing plutonium, which can be used to make nuclear weapons. They also alleged that the Syrian reactor was modeled on a small Korean reactor built at Yongbyon.

Syria denies that it has a nuclear weapons programme, or any such agreement with North Korea to develop one. “Does it make sense that we would build a nuclear facility in the desert and not protect it with anti-aircraft defences?” Assad asked. “Where would we use it?”

During a press conference in Washington, Syrian Ambassador to the US Imad Moustapha said that the pictures the CIA were using as evidence of the Syrian nuclear reactor were “fabricated” and predicted that in the following weeks the US allegations about the site “would implode from within”. “The photos presented to me yesterday were ludicrous and laughable,” he said.

The UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has launched an investigation into the US accusations. Director General of IAEA Mohamed el-Baradei said he “deplores the fact that this information was not provided to the agency in a timely manner”.