Nuclear site case is closed, Syria says

Vienna: Syria said on Friday a United Nations (UN) watchdog report failed to show anything suggesting a Syrian complex bombed by Israel was a covert nuclear reactor and no further inspector visits would be permitted.

Syrian nuclear energy chief Ebrahim Othman challenged the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report, saying the building's layout bore similarities to a reactor and UN inspectors had found striking amounts of uranium particles in the desert area.

The findings, based on satellite pictures and soil and water samples, were not enough to conclude a reactor was once there, the IAEA said, but they warranted further IAEA checks at the site and three others as well as full Syrian transparency.

Stance

Othman, speaking after an IAEA briefing to its 35-nation governing board about the report, repeated Syria's stance that Israel's target was only a conventional military building.

"What they are now saying about uranium particles - collecting three particles from the desert is not enough to say there was a reactor there at all," he told reporters, in Syria's first public reaction to Wednesday's report.

"If every square or rectangular or domed building was a reactor, then there are a lot of reactors in the world. Now, I think to follow up there should be a good reason to say there is something there. In our opinion this file should be closed," said Othman. Syria has one declared atomic facility, an old research reactor.