The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will not be allowed to investigate additional alleged nuclear sites in Syria which are military installations, Syria's top nuclear official Ibrahim Othman said in Vienna on Friday, reported the dpa. IAEA inspectors visited the al-Kibar site in June, and released a report on the visit Wednesday that said uranium particles were found there, and that images of the site which was bombed by Israel last year resembled a nuclear reactor. Asked whether Syria would allow further visits, possibly to sites other than al-Kibar, Othman said: "It think to follow up, there should be a good reason to say that there is something there, and in our opinion, this file should be closed." In his country's opinion, "there is not enough to say that there is a nuclear reactor there," Othman told reporters after a briefing on the Syria report by the IAEA secretariat for member states. The Syrian government had an agreement with the IAEA that inspectors would visit the al-Kibar only once, Othman said. If the IAEA's inspection agreement with Syria did not cover other sites that inspectors wanted to see, "it is not my problem," he said.
