Daily Alert Archives

The Case for an Immediate IAEA Special Inspection in Syria

(Washington Institute for Near East Policy) Olli Heinonen - In the case of Syria, the IAEA found uranium particles at Deir Al-Zour (destroyed in a reported Israeli air strike in 2007) and other locations that could be functionally related to it. Satellite imagery and procurement information point toward possible construction of a nuclear reactor there. If it was a nuclear reactor, this would have been the first time that an IAEA member state and an NPT signatory constructed a plutonium production reactor on such a scale without reporting it to the IAEA. If the world nuclear order is to be maintained and sanctuary for future nuclear proliferators prevented, the international community should expect nothing less than that the IAEA will use all its inspection rights in Syria, including a special inspection, now. The writer, a senior fellow at the Belfer Center at Harvard University, was formerly deputy director-general and head of the department of safeguards at the International Atomic Energy Agency.
2010-11-08 08:48:36
Full Article