Syria rejects more IAEA visits for nuclear probe

Syria said on Friday a UN watchdog report failed to show anything suggesting a Syrian complex bombed by Israel was a covert nuclear reactor and no further inspector visits would be permitted. Syrian nuclear energy chief Ibrahim Othman challenged the International Atomic Energy Agency report saying the building's layout bore similarities to a reactor and UN inspectors had found striking amounts of uranium particles in the desert area. The findings, based on satellite pictures and soil and water samples, were not enough to conclude a reactor was once there, the IAEA said, but they warranted further IAEA checks at the site and three others as well as full Syrian transparency. Othman, speaking after an IAEA briefing to its 35-nation governing board about the report, repeated Syria's stance that Israel's target was only a conventional military building. "What they are now saying about uranium particles -- collecting three particles from the desert is not enough to say there was a reactor there at all," he told reporters, speaking English in Syria's first public reaction to Wednesday's report. "If every square or rectangular or domed building was a reactor, then there are a lot of reactors in the world. "Now, I think to follow up there should be a good reason to say there is something there. In our opinion this file should be closed," said Othman, head of Syria's atomic energy commission. Syria has one declared atomic facility, an old research reactor.
He said Syria would stick by a written accord with the IAEA that allowed for only one visit to the Al-Kibar site -- which took place last June -- and "we will not allow another visit."The IAEA report said Syria had not heeded requests for documentation about the function of the building destroyed in an Israeli air raid last year or repeated requests to visit three other military sites believed to be linked to Al-Kibar.