IAEA chief frustrated by evasions of Iran and Syria

Follows earlier criticism of Israel's nuclear program

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei on Tuesday scolded Iran and Syria for their lack of cooperation with his agency's efforts to resolve outstanding questions regarding the countries' nuclear weapons programs.

"Iran right now is not providing any access or any clarification," the head of the UN watchdog said. "No, I'm not obviously happy with the degree of cooperation. They shut off any cooperation with the agency over the past few months." 

ElBaradei went on to say that the IAEA believes that that the Islamist regime has not added any more of the centrifuge arrays needed to enrich the uranium needed for nuclear warheads since reaching 3,800 in September. US experts say 3,000 centrifuges are in theory enough to produce a nuclear weapon, perhaps as soon as within a year.

Turning to the subject of Syria, ElBaradei said that the Assad regime was not forthcoming about uranium samples collected at a Syrian site destroyed by Israeli warplanes in 2007. Israel and the US have since provided intelligence supporting their claims that the site was a nascent nuclear facility.

ElBaradei's comments come just days after he also criticzed the lack of international supervision over Israel's presumed nuclear program, arguing that it undermines the IAEA's ability to enforce the Nuclear Non-Profileration Treaty.

Meanwhile, the defense analyst group Jane's recently provided commercial satellite imagery as evidence that Syria has been conducting extensive construction work on a chemical weapons facility. The site is located near a missile base that houses a significant part of Syria's long-range Scud D ballistic missiles. Already armed with a deadly arsenal of VX and other gases, Syria has apparently accelerated its chemical weapons program – a sort of poor man’s nuclear program – since Israel destroyed its suspected atomic plant in September 2007.

Meantime back on Iran, the Islamic Republic has built an unmanned surveillance aircraft with a range of more than 1,000 kilometers, a top Iranian defense official said Wednesday. Deputy Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi declined to provide more details on what he called an "important achievement."

ICEJ News