Formal report drafted on Syria atom probe

[struggle4progress]

Source: Reuters

Mon Nov 10, 2008 2:05pm EST
By Mark Heinrich

VIENNA - ... Syria has been made an official agenda item at the year-end November 27-28 meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency's board of governors, unlike previously when IAEA officials said initial inquiries were inconclusive ...

A restricted copy of the 35-nation meeting's agenda said Syria was added to address a pending report by IAEA Director Mohamed ElBaradei, similar in format to those issued quarterly on an agency probe into Iran's secretive nuclear programme ...
"We do not have firm word on what the inspectors found (at the site), only that the findings suggest there are more questions to pursue," said another senior diplomat accredited to the agency.

The diplomats asked for anonymity in exchange for discussing politically sensitive and confidential information ...

Read more: http://africa.reuters.com/world/news/usnTRE4A94KS.html

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And another version

IAEA finds uranium traces at Syrian site: diplomats
Mon Nov 10, 2008 2:05pm EST
By Mark Heinrich

VIENNA (Reuters) - U.N. investigators have found traces of uranium at a Syrian site Washington says was a secret nuclear reactor almost built before Israel bombed the target last year, diplomats said on Monday.

They said the minute uranium particles turned up in some environmental swipe samples U.N. inspectors took at the site in a visit last June. They said the finding was not enough to draw conclusions but raised concerns requiring further clarification ...

"It was a man-made component, not natural (ore). There is no sign there was already nuclear fuel or (production) activity there," another diplomat told Reuters.

This diplomat noted that such traces could have been carried to the site inadvertently on the clothes of scientists or workers or on equipment brought in from elsewhere ...

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE4A95B520081110

[ben_meyers]

1. I fail to understand the problem here

Until the US and Israel dismantle their nuclear arsenals, with the guidance of a sane and rational President for a change, how can anyone expect other countries to do the same?