VIENNA: Western intelligence agencies suspect Syria may have been building a secret atomic site near Damascus, a German newspaper said Thursday. If confirmed, the Suddeutsche Zeitung report would add to international fears that the Arab state had engaged in covert nuclear activity and it may increase pressure for action by the UN nuclear watchdog. For more than two years Syria has refused to allow UN inspectors to revisit a site bombed to rubble by Israel in 2007, which US intelligence reports said was a nascent North Korean-designed nuclear reactor intended to produce bomb fuel. Suddeutsche Zeitung said it had obtained photographs supposed to have been taken from inside two buildings at another location, about 15 km (9 miles) east of the capital and bordering a military site. It was not known exactly when they were taken. “But together with other information they allow for the first time the credible suspicion that Syria was in the process of setting up a facility for so-called uranium conversion,” Suddeutsche Zeitung said. A US-based think-tank, the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), said the site near the town of Marj as Sultan may have been linked to the Dair Alzour facility, also known as al-Kibar, which was attacked by Israel in 2007. “This facility could have been related to the process of making fuel for the planned al-Kibar reactor,” it said. Syria, an ally of Iran, denies ever harboring an atom bomb programme and says the IAEA should focus on Israel instead because of its undeclared nuclear arsenal and the fact it has never joined the Non-Proliferation Treaty. There was no immediate comment on Thursday from Syria's mission to the UN nuclear body, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). ISIS said the operational status of the site near Marj as Sultan was unknown. But it cited suspicions that Syria may have emptied the buildings a few years ago and taken steps to disguise its activities there. Satellite imagery from July 25, 2008, showed considerable activity at the site, it said. “This activity may represent an effort to lay down a new concrete or asphalt foundation around the building.” Suddeutsche Zeitung said wealthy Syrians seemed to live in the area. “Villas can be seen in the satellite photos, swimming pools in almost every garden. And unlike in al-Kibar, the suspect buildings here are still standing and were surrounded by a wall, at least in years past,” it said. Syria has repeatedly rebuffed requests by the IAEA for follow-up access to Dair Alzour and sites related to it, saying they are non-nuclear, military installations. The IAEA is due to issue its quarterly reports about Iran and Syria ahead of a March 7-11 meeting of the Vienna-based body's 35-nation governing board. The United States has suggested that the IAEA may need to consider invoking its “special inspection” mechanism to give it authority to look anywhere necessary in Syria at short notice. “With no substantial cooperation from Syria, the IAEA's Director General should clearly conclude that Syria may have egregiously violated its safeguards agreement and call for a special inspection,” ISIS said.
