Israel Matzav: IAEA finds evidence of nuclear activity at Syrian al-Kibar site

IAEA finds evidence of nuclear activity at Syrian al-Kibar site

What a difference a new director general makes! The IAEA announced on Thursday that uranium particles found at the site of the al-Kibar facility in Syria that was destroyed by Israel in September 2007 indicate that covert nuclear activity was going on at the site.

It was the first time the International Atomic Energy Agency lent public support to Western suspicions that Israel's target was a nascent nuclear reactor that Washington said was North Korean in design and geared to making weapons-grade plutonium.

Previous IAEA reports on its two-year investigation into the affair, impeded by a lack of Syrian cooperation, said only that the uranium particles raised concern because they did not come from Syria's declared inventory.

"The presence of such particles points to the possibility of nuclear-related activities at the site and adds to questions concerning the nature of the destroyed building," said the confidential report by new IAEA Director-General Yukiya Amano, obtained by Reuters.

"Syria has yet to provide a satisfactory explanation for the origin and presence of these particles," he wrote, dismissing Damascus's contention that the traces came with munitions used by Israel to wreck the complex.

If only ElBaradei had been replaced four years ago, we'd probably not be as close to a major crisis as we are today.

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Israel Matzav: IAEA finds evidence of nuclear activity at Syrian al-Kibar site