AFP: US concerned about UN atomic report on Syria
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States said Wednesday it views with “tremendous concern” a UN report that a remote desert site in Syria that was bombed by Israeli planes in 2007 was probably a nuclear reactor.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a report that “it is very likely that the building destroyed at the Dair Alzour site was a nuclear reactor which should have been declared to the agency.”
“The attempt by Syria to construct a clandestine nuclear reactor site is obviously a matter of concern, and we fully expect that the IAEA board will address this issue when it meets,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.
“The IAEA board will meet and then decide whether to advance it to the UN Security Council,” Toner told reporters without actually saying that Washington would push for it to go to the council.
“We view this as a matter of tremendous concern and will make our views clear at the board meeting,” he said.
We should be more concerned that it took the IAEA four years to come public with what the U.S., Israel and probably most member states of the IAEA knew four years ago.
