Western powers have questioned an International Atomic Energy Agency offer to help Syria look into building a nuclear power plant while it is under investigation for alleged covert atomic activity, diplomats said today.
But they said that whether the United States and close allies act to bar the "technical cooperation" project at an IAEA governors meeting in two weeks - a rare and politically divisive step - will depend on the findings of the agency's first investigative report on Syria due next week.
Diplomats tracking the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Monday that traces of uranium turned up in some test samples taken by IAEA inspectors from a Syrian site Washington says was a nascent atomic reactor before it was bombed by Israel in 2007.
The IAEA declined comment pending the report.
Syria has said the site was a disused military building and that US intelligence driving the IAEA investigation is fabricated. It suggested that the uranium particles came with munitions Israel dropped on the site.
Some diplomats and analysts said the traces were more likely to have come from uranium that was at some stage of processing for fuel, but the origin remained unclear.
The IAEA was expected to caution that the findings warranted further investigation before conclusions could be drawn.
Vienna diplomats, who asked for anonymity, said the mere fact Syria was being probed over nuclear proliferation concerns meant that approving the nuclear power plant study now could send the wrong message.
Reuters