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Last update - 03:55 27/11/2008
UN watchdog clears Syria bid for atomic aid, despite world doubts
By Reuters
Tags: iaea, israel news, syria 

United Nations nuclear watchdog governors on Wednesday approved a disputed Syrian bid for atomic aid after being assured it would be kept under scrutiny while Damascus is being investigated for alleged covert nuclear activity.

Diplomats said the United States, Canada and Australia, part of a Western drive to block the project, made last-minute objections but finally joined a consensus in favour since they could not have won if they forced a rare vote in the 35-nation body.

Syria's request for International Atomic Energy Agency technical aid in planning a nuclear power plant, the sort of IAEA aid routinely rubber-stamped for many member states, became controversial after a Nov. 19 agency report suggesting Damascus might have tried to build a nuclear reactor in secret.
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The report said a Syrian building demolished in an Israeli air raid last year bore similarities to a nuclear reactor and uranium particles, possibly remnants of pre-enriched nuclear fuel, had been found in the area.

But it cautioned that the findings, based on U.S. satellite intelligence and one on-site IAEA inspection, were preliminary and more investigation, as well as Syrian documentation to prove its denials of illicit work, were essential to draw conclusions.

Major Western nations want the project axed saying it would be "totally
inappropriate" as long as Syria was being investigated over suspicions it tried to launch an undeclared reactor designed to make plutonium for atomic bombs.

Russia, China and developing states, influentially backed by IAEA Director Mohamed ElBaradei, countered that there was no legal basis for denying a country aid for civilian atomic energy without proof of violations of non-proliferation rules.

The text of a compromise adopted by the board said the project, to be carried out from 2009 to 2011, would be under specially close monitoring with measures taken to ensure equipment provided was not diverted to other purposes.

It also provided for governors to be able to reconsider the Syria study at any time if the inquiry found Damascus to be in "non-compliance" with safeguard rules, as North Korea and Iran were previously, which led to cut-offs of IAEA aid.

Wednesday's decision by the Technical Assistance Cooperation Committee of the IAEA board will be formally adopted at the body's year-end plenary meeting later this week.

Related articles:
  • IAEA chief ElBaradei: Let Syria have nuclear aid
  • IAEA: Samples from alleged Syria nuke site justify further probe
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      1.   Farewll and Adieu to You Fair Spanish Maidens... 21:09  |  Ovadiah ben Avraham 26/11/08
      2.   good!! IAEA gets back in Syria and Syria gets legal 22:06  |  atomic energy 26/11/08
      3.   IAEA`s credibility is in sharp decline 22:06  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 26/11/08
      4.   What world doubts? 23:26  |  Mark Lincoln 26/11/08
      5.   For laughs 00:19  |  mark Lincoln 27/11/08
      6.   #5, Mark Lincoln 01:29  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 27/11/08
      7.   The search for Lincoln`s brain 04:40  |  SDHD 27/11/08
      8.   #3, CPK, nothing new with you, still a hypocrite 08:56  |  VIPER 27/11/08
      9.   The watchdog that bites its own tail 09:12  |  Proud Israeli 27/11/08
      10.   Oh thats a real good one from the UNot 10:08  |  George 27/11/08
      11.   Why are we not surprised? Predictable outcome 10:08  |  Harvey 27/11/08
      12.   Viper 10:10  |  George 27/11/08
      13.   # 6 to cipora re: a syrian reactor 10:26  |  eric 27/11/08
      14.   Some Logic! 12:45  |  Logician 27/11/08
      15.   Cipora, I posted #5 for laughs 13:12  |  Mark Lincoln 27/11/08
      16.   Again Our Canadian Toadie Obediently Follows The Idiot`s Lead 18:37  |  chet 27/11/08
      17.   #3 Cipora, you are such a laugh! 00:32  |  Johnboy 28/11/08
      18.   viper,speaking of hypocrites,i see your still living in aborigine 16:58  |  terrornator 28/11/08
      19.   eric,hos that going to happen if syria refuses to come clean? 17:00  |  terrornator 28/11/08
      20.   johnnyboy and his "non-existential" WMDs 17:04  |  terrornator 28/11/08
      21.   #18, TERRORNATOR, the hasbarah handbook junkie 11:07  |  VIPER 01/12/08
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