Syria nuclear case referred to Security Council

Jun 9, 2011, 15:12 GMT

Vienna - Syria was referred to the UN Security Council over its alleged secret nuclear programme on Thursday, by a resolution of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) member countries.

A narrow majority of 17 mostly Western countries on the 35-country IAEA governing board voted in Vienna in favour of censuring Damascus for secretly building a reactor, participants of the meeting said.

The board referred the matter to the Security Council, nearly four years after Israel bombed the alleged nuclear site in 2007.

Damascus maintains that the Dair Alzour site in the desert was a conventional military installation, but after several years of Syria stonewalling the IAEA's probe, the nuclear agency concluded last month it was likely a reactor.

'It is regrettable,' Syria's Ambassador Bassam Sabbagh said about the resolution.

'I think Syria has always been committed to its obligations and to its duties, and I think we'll continue to do that,' he told reporters.

Russia and China opposed the US-sponsored resolution, along with Azerbaijan, Ecuador, Pakistan and Venezuela. Russia and China have veto power in the Security Council, making it unlikely that the body will take further action any time soon.

Most developing countries on the board abstained.

'Syria's nuclear intentions at Dair Alzour are clear; the reactor there was built for the express purpose of producing plutonium for possible use in nuclear weapons,' US Ambassador Glyn Davies said.