DAMASCUS (Agencies)
Syria's official press lashed out at the United States and Israel on Tuesday over claims it was building a secret nuclear reactor, and said the Jewish state's own atomic facilities should be subject to international inspection.
U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei said on Monday that his inspectors would this month visit the site of the suspected reactor that was bombed by Israeli warplanes in September last year.
The Al-Kibar site was attacked after Israeli and U.S. intelligence concluded it was a partly constructed nuclear reactor built with North Korean help, but the Syrians have strongly denied the allegations.
"The American and Israeli claims are false. Instead, Israel should be called on to submit its own nuclear installations to international inspection so at least we know how many nuclear weapons it possesses," Syria's official Ath-Thawra newspaper said in an editorial.
Israel is widely believed to be the only nuclear armed power in the Middle East but has a policy of neither confirming nor denying its arsenal and is not a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
On Monday, ElBaradei criticized Israel for attacking Al-Kibar before the International Atomic Energy Agency had a chance to inspect it, and the United States for waiting until April to pass on intelligence alleging that the reactor had a military purpose and was built with North Korea's help. |
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Peaceful program And in remarks published on Tuesday, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Damascus is not seeking nuclear weapons but wants to have access to atomic energy for peaceful purposes through a collective Arab project.
"Acquiring nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is an international trend that all countries are rightfully pursuing. In Syria, we want this to be done within an Arab context, which was discussed and agreed during the Arab Summit in Riyadh," he said during a visit to the United Arab Emirates.
Gulf Arabs have announced their own plans to develop nuclear energy for civilian purposes following a 2007 Arab summit that called on Arabs to develop atomic power.
The United States urged Syria to cooperate with U.N. inspectors during the June 22 to 24 visit, the first of its kind to Syria.
ElBaradei did not say whether Syria, which had not responded for months to IAEA requests for access, would allow U.N. investigators to examine the al-Kibar site in northeastern Syria. |
