The UN atomic watchdog hit out Friday at the United States for withholding intelligence, accusing Syria of building a secret nuclear reactor with North Korea's help. The International Atomic Energy Agency also criticized Israel for acting on the allegations and bombing the purported reactor in a raid last September without giving IAEA inspectors an opportunity to investigate. The agency insisted it was taking seriously the allegations that were passed on by the United States Thursday. “(We) will treat this information with the seriousness it deserves and will investigate the veracity of the information,” it said in a statement. “Syria has an obligation under its safeguards agreement with the IAEA to report the planning and construction of any nuclear facility.” Nevertheless, the watchdog was critical of both the US and Israel for their handling of the matter. IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei “deplores the fact” that the information was not immediately passed on the Vienna-based watchdog in accordance with the guidelines of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT),” the statement said. “Under the NPT, the agency has a responsibility to verify any proliferation allegations in a non-nuclear weapon state party to the NPT,” the statement said. “In light of the above, the Director General views the unilateral military action by Israel as undermining the due process of verification that is at the heart of the non-proliferation regime,” it added. On Thursday, the US accused Syria of building a secret nuclear reactor with North Korea's help, charging that the facility had a military purpose until Israel destroyed it in a September raid. Damascus immediately rejected the allegations as “ridiculous.” The Damascus government issued a statement Friday that also alleged the US aided Israel in last year's bombing of Syrian territory. Seven months after the Israeli bombing, the Bush administration alleged Thursday that North Korea was secretly assisting work on a nuclear reactor in Syria and the facility destroyed by Israel was not intended for “peaceful purposes.” In a briefing for reporters, senior US officials said Israel and the United States had discussed what steps to take, but Israel acted on its own with no green light from Washington. “None was asked. None was given,” said a senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. A senior intelligence official said that before it was destroyed the reactor was ready to go into operation “in weeks and possibly months.” – Agencies Among the evidence displayed were photographs taken inside the reactor showing construction of the shield for the reactor core, and control rods and refueling ports on top of the reactor. The rector and the building that housed it were similar in design to the North Korean reactor at Yongbyon, which produces plutonium, the officials said. The Syrian embassy charged that the United States “may have helped execute” the Israeli air strike and pointedly tied the charges to the widely discredited weapons-of-mass-destruction case for invading Iraq. “The Syrian government hopes that the international community and the American public, particularly, will be more cautious and aware this time around in facing such unfounded allegations,” it said.
