UN targets US over delay in Syrian nuclear evidence

The US yesterday issued a quite hysterical claim that North Korea were attempting to aid Syria to build a nuclear reactor which Israel managed to take out during their raid last year. The whole thing stunk to high heaven, and the US and Israel have been strangely silent about what took place (when Israel bombed Syria) until the US issued it's nuclear reactor claims yesterday.

Mohamed ElBaradei, the International Atomic Energy Agency chief, has reacted with understandable fury at the United States and Israel for their failure to pass the appropriate information on to the IAEA in a timely enough fashion for the IAEA to be able to investigate and verify the US claims, leading anyone with an ounce of cynicism to come to the conclusion that the whole story is a load of old baloney.

Mohamed ElBaradei, the International Atomic Energy Agency chief, issued a stiffly worded statement in which he criticised the US and Israel, as well as Syria, which should have informed the IAEA if it was building a nuclear reactor.

Noting that the IAEA was only informed by the Bush administration about the nuclear reactor claim on Thursday, seven months after the Israeli raid, he deplored the fact that the information had not been provided to the agency in a "timely" manner.

Mr ElBaradei also pointed out that, according to the information provided by the US, "the reactor was not yet operational and no nuclear material had been introduced into it". According to a Western diplomat in Vienna, that meant that if the UN inspectors had been alerted earlier, they would have been able to verify the facts on the ground. "Now nobody is ever going to know for sure," the diplomat said. In his statement, Mr ElBaradei criticised Israel for its "unilateral use of force" which undermined the "due process of verification".

Mr ElBaradei was said to be incensed by the American failure to inform the UN watchdog about the possible risk of nuclear proliferation when the Americans became aware of the nature of the site in 2006. "What kind of non-proliferation regime is this, when they come to the IAEA months after it's been bombed?" the diplomat said. The IAEA chief pledged to investigate the US information "with the seriousness it deserves".

"Now nobody is ever going to know for sure". Isn't that the very point? Israel and the US could have informed the IAEA and had them verify on the ground exactly what this facility was used for, but they chose to bomb it and then tell us all seven months later - when nothing can be verified - that it was a nuclear facility supplied by North Korea.

The Israelis are still refusing to comment on the matter and the Syrians dismiss the US claims as "ridiculous".

If the US claims are true, and we will now never know for sure, why didn't the US and Israel, rather than attack a facility which was not yet operational, not simply report it and expose this Syrian deceit to the entire world?

"It's sheer fabrication," said the spokesman for the Syrian embassy in London, Jihad Makdissi, adding that the reactor images showed a deserted military building. "The CIA giving testimony is the same CIA that briefed Colin Powell who spoke at the UN Security Council about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction."

And therein lies the rub. This is the same Bush administration which took it's nation to war on it's inflated claims regarding Iraqi WMD. On this occasion it could have led the IAEA right into Syria and pointed out the facility and ensured it's destruction. This would have strengthened the world's confidence in US intelligence, at a time when it has been undermined by the false claims made before the Iraq war, and strengthened the US's claims regarding Iran and it's supposed pursuit of a nuclear weapon. And yet, we are asked to believe that the US chose not to go down that route and instead allowed Israel to destroy all evidence that this facility ever existed.

Indeed, we are asked to believe that this facility had to be destroyed by Israel as a matter of urgency, even though the facility was not yet operational.

What a load of baloney... It's taken them seven months to come up with this story...

Why tell us now? Why didn't they tell us this at a time when their claims could be verified or proven false? This is, after all, an administration who have foregone any right to be given the benefit the doubt.

And it's highly suspicious that this information comes to light at the very moment when the US Congress is considering easing sanctions on North Korea.

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Tags: Syria, Israel, United States, Bush, IAEA, Mohamed ElBaradei, nuclear reactor