Syria's nuclear case referred to Security Council

Jun 9, 2011, 16:40 GMT

The Syrian ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Bassam Al-Sabbagh, prior to a meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors in Vienna, Austria, 06 June 2011. The topics for discussion for the board are the Implementation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Safeguards Agreement and Relevant Provisions of Security Council Resolutions in the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the Implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement in the Syrian Arab Republic. EPA/ROLAND SCHLAGER

Vienna - The International Atomic Energy Agency raised the pressure on Syria to come clean on its alleged secret nuclear programme Thursday when the IAEA's governing board referred the issue to the UN Security Council.

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

In the resolution, sponsored by the United States and other Western countries, the board referred the matter to the Security Council, nearly four years after Israel bombed the alleged nuclear site in 2007.

'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.

Syria should now change course and fully cooperate with the IAEA's inspectors, he said.

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, which have veto power in the Security Council in New York, voted against the resolution, making it unlikely that the body will take further action any time soon.

Russia's envoy, Grigory Berdennikov, said that the site did not pose any danger to peace and security because it no longer exists.

'The draft resolution, in our view, is untimely and not objective,' he said before the vote.

The Foreign Ministry in Moscow also spoke out against a Security Council resolution Thursday that would censure the Syrian government over human rights violations amid the current political turmoil.

At the IAEA, Azerbaijan, Ecuador, Pakistan and Venezuela also voted against sending the nuclear issue to New York, while most developing countries on the board abstained.

The IAEA's conclusion last month that Syria had likely been building a reactor was based on uranium traces found there, as well as on analysis of satellite images and on the layout of the site.

The agency's report noted that the dimensions of the site were similar to North Korea's reactor at Yongbyon, a reference to US allegations that North Korean experts helped Syria with the reactor project.

IAEA has had to use circumstantial evidence because Israel bombed Dair Alzour in 2007, and because Syria has shown little willingness to answer questions so far.

Damascus promised full cooperation shortly before this week's IAEA board meeting, but IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano said Monday that he needs to see actual results, rather than announcements.

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