Assad denies building nuclear reactor

NUKEWARS

US never gave Israel green light for Syria strike: US official
The United States never gave Israel a green light to strike a nuclear reactor built by Syria with North Korean help last year, a senior US administration official said Thursday. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the United States had discussed "policy options" with Israel over evidence that Syria was building the reactor. "Israel considered a Syrian nuclear reactor an existential threat to the state of Israel," the official said. "After these discussions, at the end of the day, Israel made its own decision to take action. It did so without any green light from us. None was asked, none was given," the official said. President George W. Bush's administration had planned to pursue a strategy combining diplomacy and the threat of military action to pressure Syria into dismantling the facility, the official said.

by Staff Writers
Doha (AFP) April 27, 2008
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad denied in remarks published on Sunday that a site raided by Israel last year was a nuclear reactor under construction as charged by the United States.

Last September's Israeli air strike "hit a military site under construction, not a nuclear site as Israel and America claimed," Assad told the Qatari daily Al-Watan in an interview.

"Does it make sense that we would build a nuclear facility in the desert and not protect it with anti-aircraft defences?" he asked.

"A nuclear site exposed to (spy) satellites, in the heart of Syria and in an open space?

"We don't want a nuclear bomb even if Iran acquires one," added Assad, whose country is a close ally of Tehran, itself embroiled in a standoff with Washington over its nuclear activities.

"Where would we use it?... War in the region will effectively remain conventional," he said.

Assad underlined that he believed Iran "does not think differently" on this score.

Iran has repeatedly rejected Western suspicions that its nuclear programme is cover for a drive to develop an atomic bomb.

It says nuclear weapons are un-Islamic and insists the programme is aimed solely at generating power for a growing population once fossil fuels run out.

The United States has accused Syria of building a secret atomic reactor with North Korean help.

On Thursday, US national security officials briefed US congressmen, presenting intelligence they said showed Syria had been building a secret nuclear reactor for military ends.

They said the plant was being built with the help of North Korea, until its destruction by Israel in an air raid on September 6.

The International Atomic Energy Agency launched an investigation into the US accusations on Friday but chided both Israel and the United States for their handling of the affair.

Syria promised its full cooperation.

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NUKEWARS

Atomic expert questions US claim over Syrian 'reactor'

Vienna (AFP) April 26, 2008
A nuclear physicist close to the United Nations atomic watchdog cast doubt Saturday on the veracity of US intelligence which claimed that Syria had been building a secret atomic reactor.

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