US Claims Evidence Growing of Syrian Nuclear Cover-up

Official Cites IAEA Report, Demands Syrian Cooperation

by Jason Ditz, March 04, 2009

Just one day after the Obama Administration declared an end to America’s four-year long diplomatic embargo of the Syrian government, US Ambassador to the IAEA Gregory Schulte claimed there was “growing evidence of clandestine nuclear activities in Syria.” The ambassador demanded that Syria provide all cooperation requested by the IAEA.

The latest charges by the ambassador (perhaps best remembered in recent memory for declaring that he thought it was “plausible” that the Iranian government might try to develop a nuclear weapon at some unknown future date) don’t appear to be based on any new evidence, but rather cited a two week old report by the IAEA claiming the discovery of 80 uranium particles and traces of graphite in the enormous amount of soil samples taken during their visit.

The lack of new evidence makes the timing of the comment somewhat curious, one would have assumed that the Obama Administration wouldn’t want to deliberately antagonize the Syrian government less than 24 hours after renewing diplomatic relations with them. The Syrian government has refused to allow further access to the site attacked by Israel in 2007, citing a missile facility built on the site since then.

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