Western
intelligence agencies suspect Syria may have been building a secret atomic site
near Damascus, a German newspaper said on Thursday.
If
confirmed, the Suddeutsche Zeitung report would add to international fears that
the Arab state had engaged in covert nuclear activity and it may increase
pressure for action by the UN nuclear watchdog.
For more
than two years Syria has refused to allow UN inspectors to revisit a site
bombed to rubble by Israel in 2007, which US intelligence reports said was a
nascent North Korean-designed nuclear reactor intended to produce bomb fuel.
Suddeutsche
Zeitung said it had obtained photographs supposed to have been taken from
inside two buildings at another location, about 15 km (9 miles) east of the
capital and bordering a military site. It was not known exactly when they were
taken.
“But
together with other information they allow for the first time the credible
suspicion that Syria was in the process of setting up a facility for so-called
uranium conversion,” Suddeutsche Zeitung said.
A US-based
think-tank, the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), said
the site near the town of Marj as Sultan may have been linked to the Dair
Alzour facility, also known as al-Kibar, which was attacked by Israel in 2007.
“This
facility could have been related to the process of making fuel for the planned
al-Kibar reactor,” it said.
Syria, an
ally of Iran, denies ever harbouring an atom bomb programme and says the IAEA
should focus on Israel instead because of its undeclared nuclear arsenal and
the fact it has never joined the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
There was no
immediate comment on Thursday from Syria’s mission to the U.N. nuclear body,
the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
ISIS said
the operational status of the site near Marj as Sultan was unknown. But it
cited suspicions that Syria may have emptied the buildings a few years ago and
taken steps to disguise its activities there.
Satellite
imagery from July 25, 2008, showed considerable activity at the site, it said.
“This activity may represent an effort to lay down a new concrete or
asphalt foundation around the building.”
Suddeutsche
Zeitung said wealthy Syrians seemed to live in the area. “Villas can be
seen in the satellite photos, swimming pools in almost every garden. And unlike
in al-Kibar, the suspect buildings here are still standing and were surrounded
by a wall, at least in years past,” it said.
Syria has
repeatedly rebuffed requests by the IAEA for follow-up access to Dair Alzour
and sites related to it, saying they are non-nuclear, military installations.
The IAEA is
due to issue its quarterly reports about Iran and Syria ahead of a March 7-11
meeting of the Vienna-based body’s 35-nation governing board.
The United
States has suggested that the IAEA may need to consider invoking its
“special inspection” mechanism to give it authority to look anywhere
necessary in Syria at short notice.
“With
no substantial cooperation from Syria, the IAEA’s Director General should
clearly conclude that Syria may have egregiously violated its safeguards
agreement and call for a special inspection,” ISIS said.
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