IAEA approves nuclear aid for Syria despite West's concerns (Roundup)

By Albert Otti Nov 26, 2008, 16:34 GMT

Vienna - International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) members on Wednesday approved nuclear aid for Syria, despite misgivings of several western countries that are concerned about Syria's alleged secret nuclear programme, according to diplomats.

Western countries, including the United States, France, Britain, Australia and Canada only reluctantly approved the 350,000-dollar project to find a suitable location for a nuclear power plant in Syria, which is under suspicion of having secretly built a reactor at al-Kibar in its eastern desert.

The site was destroyed by the Israeli air force in September 2007.

At a meeting on the IAEA's technical aid budget that started Monday, developing countries insisted that the nuclear agency's aid projects should not become politicised.

On Monday, the IAEA dismissed criticism from Western countries who said it was too early for Syria to receive assistance on reactor siting and related training and scientific equipment, since the country is officially still in the earliest stages of planning.

IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said that 'the priorities in our technical cooperation programme are the priorities of individual countries and should not be subject to political considerations.'

Consensus on the Syrian project was achieved with the help of a text accompanying the decision, which took note of the West's 'strong reservations' and effectively said the issue could be revisited if Syria was formally found to have violated IAEA rules.

'The (IAEA) Secretariat stated that, in the discharge of its functions, it would monitor the project closely, report as appropriate, and ensure that any equipment provided is used only for the purpose intended,' the text said.

The 35 countries on the governing board of the Vienna-based agency are set to focus on Syria and Iran in a regular meeting scheduled for Thursday and Friday.

Without drawing any conclusions, ElBaradei noted last week that the features of the destroyed al-Kibar site were what was to be expected at a nuclear reactor, and that IAEA inspectors had found uranium particles there.

Inspectors first visited al-Kibar in June, after having been pointed to the site by US intelligence.

The IAEA board of governors is also set to discuss ElBaradei's latest report on Iran, in which he stated his concern that the country was not answering outstanding questions on past studies that were possibly related to nuclear weapons development.

The report also noted that Iran was continuing to enrich uranium, in defiance of calls by the United Nations Security Council to suspend this activity.

'Suspension has no meaning at all in Iran's culture and no such a thing exists,' the chief of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, Gholam-Reza Aqazadeh, was quoted as saying Wednesday by the official IRNA news agency.

Aqazadeh also announced that more than 5,000 centrifuges are now actively running at the country's uranium enrichment plant, in contrast to the figure of around 3,800 given in the IAEA report.