Israel, US shared data on Syria's suspected nuclear site (Roundup)

Sep 21, 2007, 19:02 GMT

Washington/Jerusalem - Israel launched its mysterious airstrike in northern Syria earlier this month after sharing intelligence information with the United States on the suspected target, the Washington Post reported Friday.

According to the Washington Post, which cited US government sources speaking on condition of anonymity, the target hit in the airstrike, launched September 6 and since clouded in secrecy, was a suspected nuclear site in northern Syria set up with help from North Korea.

Israel shared its information that North Korean nuclear experts were in Syria assisting with its nuclear ambitions with US President George W Bush this summer, the Post said. Bush refused to comment on the airstrike during a press conference on Thursday.

Bush's spokeswoman, Dana Perino, refused to comment on the Post report on Friday.

'I'm not saying, one way or the other, whether it's accurate,' Perino said.

The Bush administration was deeply troubled by Israel's assertion but opted against an immediate response to avoid undermining the negotiations with North Korea over its nuclear activities, according to the Post, but did provide Israel with some corroboration of its original intelligence.

During the press conference Thursday, Bush warned that any proliferation by North Korea of nuclear material or know-how could jeopardize the outcome for the six-nation talks seeking to resolve the dispute over Pyongyang nuclear work.

'To the extent that they are proliferating, we expect them to stop their proliferation if they want the six-party talks to be successful,' he said.

Since 'Operation Orchard,' Israel has followed a policy of absolute silence, with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert instructing his ministers to refrain from any comment.

But opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu became the first Israeli official to come close to confirming the airstrike took place, when he said in an interview with Israel's Channel One television Wednesday night that he had been informed of 'the matter' and had given his backing to Olmert.

'When a prime minister does something that is important and necessary to Israel's security ... I give my backing,' he added, without giving further details.

The policy of silence is in contrast to past Israeli raids. Israel did issue an announcement when it attacked a nuclear reactor in Iraq in 1981.

The lack of official information from either Israel, the US or Syria, which only spoke of an 'Israeli violation of Syrian airspace' and 'dropping of ammunitions,' has sparked a chain of speculation.

The Cable News Network (CNN), reporting the first unofficial confirmation by unanimous US sources that Israel did carry out an airstrike in Syria, had said the target may have been a weapons shipment over land earmarked for the Lebanese Hezbollah movement. It made no mention of an alleged nuclear facility.

Syria and North Korea both vehemently denied this week that they were cooperating on a nuclear programme.

The Israeli attack, however, is said to have come just three days after a North Korean ship docked at the Syrian port of Tartus, carrying a cargo that was officially listed as cement.

The Israeli airstrike would be the first in Syria since October 2003, when Israel attacked a training base north-west of Damascus, which it said was used by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad faction in retaliation to a deadly suicide bombing in the Israeli port city of Haifa.