UN wants details on ex-nuclear site
2013-03-04 21:05
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Syria
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Vienna - Syrian rebels who have reportedly captured a
suspected nuclear reactor site - destroyed by Israel six years ago - have not
been in contact with UN inspectors about visiting it, IAEA chief Yukiya Amano
said on Monday.
The UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has
long sought access to a site in Syria's desert Deir al-Zor region that US
intelligence reports say was a nascent, North Korean-designed reactor geared to
producing plutonium for nuclear weapons before Israel bombed it in 2007.
On 24 February, opposition sources in eastern Syria said
rebels had captured the destroyed site near the Euphrates River.
"Certainly we are aware of the report on [the] rebel
group's offer to invite us to the site of Deir al-Zor but we are not aware of
any communication to that effect," Amano, IAEA director general, told a
news conference, referring to a media report last month.
The Vienna-based watchdog has also been requesting information
about three other sites that may have been linked to Deir al-Zor.
Syria says Deir al-Zor was a conventional military
facility but the IAEA concluded in May 2011 it was "very likely" to
have been a reactor that should have been declared to its anti-proliferation
inspectors.
The UN investigation appears to have died down since the
national revolt against President Bashar Assad broke out in 2011, with the
armed opposition increasingly capturing military sites in rural areas and on
the edges of cities.
UN inspectors examined the site in June 2008 but Syrian
authorities have barred them access since.
"I renew my call to Syria to fully co-operate with
us in connection with unresolved issued related to the Deir al-Zor site and
other locations," Amano earlier on Monday told the IAEA's 35-nation
governing board, according to a copy of his speech.
