Syria: One IAEA inspection enough

Syria has rejected the IAEA’s request for a second inspection of its alleged nuclear site, bombed by Israel last September.

“Syria has carried out what it promised in this regard,” the official news agency SANA quoted a foreign ministry source as saying on Sunday.

Damascus said “If, after visiting the site, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) wants any clarifications then Syria can give answers to them.”

The UN nuclear watchdog sent a delegation to visit al-Kibar site in June and said it was satisfied with the initial results of the visit.

The site which is in a remote desert area of northeastern Syria, was bombed in an Israeli air raid in September 2007.

The US and Israel claim al-Kibar was a secret nuclear reactor under construction with the help of North Korea.

Syria however denies the allegations, saying the bombed site was a deserted military building and had nothing to do with a clandestine nuclear program.

The foreign ministry source also said the accusations had been made by the United States to justify the “Israeli aggression” against the Al-Kibar site”.

SB/DA