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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Syria rejects opening military sites to IAEA |
| 2008-10-04 |
| Syria said on Friday it was cooperating fully with a U.N. inquiry into its nuclear activity but would not go as far as opening up military sites because this would undermine its national security. "We would like to underline that my government is cooperating with the agency in full transparency and will follow suit all along the way," Ibrahim Othman, Syria's Atomic Energy Commission director, told the IAEA's assembly on Friday. "However, this cooperation will not in any way come at the expense of exposing our military sites or causing a threat to our national security," said Othman. Diplomats close to the IAEA have said Syria has ignored agency requests to check three military installations believed linked to the alleged reactor site. "We regret statements by some countries calling on us to show more transparency. I would like you here to recall what (IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei) said, namely that Syria has cooperated and complied with implementation of the measures agreed to by the agency." The U.N. atomic watchdog is probing allegations that Damascus had been building a clandestine nuclear facility at Al-Kibar, a remote desert area, until it was bombed by Israeli planes in September 2007. |
| Posted by:Fred |