NTI: Global Security Newswire November 12, 2008
Syria Pins Uranium Findings on Israeli Weapons
Uranium traces found at an alleged Syrian nuclear reactor site might have been deposited by depleted uranium munitions used by Israel to destroy the facility last year, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem suggested today (see GSN, Nov. 11).
Israel bombed the site in September 2007, and U.S. intelligence services later offered evidence that the facility was a nearly operational reactor designed with North Korean assistance to manufacture plutonium for nuclear weapons (see GSN, April 25).
Syria permitted inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency to visit the site in June; laboratory analyses of soil and air samples indicated traces of processed uranium, Reuters reported this week, citing unnamed diplomats.
Syria has denied having any covert nuclear activities, but has raised some suspicions by quickly razing the bombed site and erecting a new structure. It has also rejected IAEA requests to revisit the site and to examine additional locations.
“The objective of this campaign of anonymous leaks is to find something to pressure Syria with. This is being turned into a political issue," Moualem said today in Damascus.
“The U.S. complaint submitted to the IAEA seven months after the Israeli raid says that the facility was a reactor under construction, not operational. The question therefore is where did uranium particles come from?” Moualem said. “Didn't anyone ask what did the Israeli bombs contain? Didn't anyone pay attention that the United States and Israel have precedents in using ... uranium when bombing, whether in Iraq, south Lebanon or Afghanistan?” (Khaled Yacoub Oweis, Reuters, Nov. 12).
One military expert said he doubted that Israel used depleted uranium munitions.
“I would be skeptical of such a claim,” said John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org.
Depleted uranium ammunition is primarily intended to penetrate armor plating, such as that found on tanks, Pike said, adding that he was unaware of any U.S. aircraft munitions that use the material. Therefore, it was unlikely that Israel had any such weapons.
“The only munitions Israelis drop are ones we’ve sold them,” he said (Greg Webb, Global Security Newswire, Nov. 12).
Meanwhile, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei yesterday urged “Syria to give us maximum transparency.”
He also requested help from other nations.
“I also continue to call on all these countries who have any information including satellite imageries to share it with the agency,” he said, criticizing the Israeli bombing.
“The fact that we were not allowed to investigate that issue before the facility was destroyed” has made efforts “much more complicated for us,” ElBaradei said (Karel Janicek, Associated Press/Google News, Nov. 11).
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