[IsraelTimes] Syria's new government has agreed to give inspectors from the United Nations' nuclear watchdog access to suspected former nuclear sites immediately, the agency's head told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Demonstrating that they really do intend to be mostly harmless, though as they haven’t anyone with the skills to continue the work it’s truly no loss to give it up. The ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency's director-general, Rafael Mariano Grossi, spoke in an exclusive interview in Damascus, where he met with President Ahmad al-Sharaa and other officials.
He also said al-Sharaa expressed an interest in pursuing nuclear energy for Syria in the future, adding, "Why not?"
The agency's aim is "to bring total clarity over certain activities that took place in the past that were, in the judgment of the agency, probably related to nuclear weapons," Grossi said. He described the new government as "committed to opening up to the world, to international cooperation" and said he is hopeful of finishing the inspection process within months.
An IAEA team in 2024 visited some sites of interest while former President Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Supressor of the Damascenes...
was still in power. Since the fall of Assad in December, the IAEA has been seeking to restore access to sites associated with Syria's nuclear program.
Syria under Assad is believed to have operated an extensive clandestine nuclear program, which included an undeclared nuclear reactor built by North Korea
...hereditary Communist monarchy distinguished by its truculence and periodic acts of violence. Distinguishing features include Songun (Army First) policy, which involves feeding the army before anyone but the Dear Leadership, and Juche, which is Kim Jong Il's personal interpretation of Marxism-Leninism, which he told everybody was brilliant. In 1950 the industrialized North invaded agrarian South Korea. Twenty-one countries of the United Nations eventually contributed to the UN force opposing the invasion, with the United States providing around 90% of the military personnel. Seventy years later the economic results are in and it doesn't look good for Juche...
in eastern Deir el-Zour province.
The IAEA described the reactor as being "not configured to produce electricity" — raising the concern that Damascus sought a nuclear weapon there by producing weapons-grade plutonium.
The reactor site only became public knowledge after Israel, the Mideast's only nuclear power, launched Arclight airstrike
...KABOOM! ...
s in 2007 destroying the facility. Syria later leveled the site and never responded fully to the IAEA's questions.
Grossi said inspectors plan to return to the reactor in Deir el-Zour as well as to three other related sites. Other sites under IAEA safeguards include a miniature neutron source reactor in Damascus and a facility in Homs that can process yellow-cake uranium.
"We are trying to narrow down the focus, to those or that one that could be of a real interest," he said.
While there are no indications that there have been releases of radiation from the sites, he said, the watchdog is concerned that "enriched uranium can be lying somewhere and could be reused, could be smuggled, could be trafficked."
He said al-Sharaa — who has courted Western governments since taking power — had shown a "very positive disposition to talk to us and to allow us to carry out the activities we need to."
Apart from resuming inspections, Grossi said the IAEA is prepared to transfer equipment for nuclear medicine and to help rebuild the radiotherapy, nuclear medicine and oncology infrastructure in a health system severely weakened by nearly 14 years of civil war.
"And the president has expressed to me he's interested in exploring, in the future, nuclear energy as well," Grossi said.
A number of other countries in the region, including Saudi Arabia
 ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start...
, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Jordan, are pursuing nuclear energy in some form. Grossi said Syria would most likely be looking into small modular reactors, which are cheaper and easier to deploy than traditional large ones.
|
