Syria accuses US of making false allegations as UN team arrives

Beirut: A Syrian newspaper accused the United States on Monday of making false nuclear accusations against Damascus and expressed hope that a fact-finding trip by UN nuclear inspectors to Syria won't turn into a 'prolonged affair.'

The editorial in Syria's independent but government-guided Al Watan newspaper was the only mention so far in Syria of the UN nuclear inspection under way. Otherwise, Syria has placed strict bans on media reporting the IAEA visit to the country.

On Sunday, officials at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna confirmed its team had left for Syria for the visit -which is to examine US allegations that Syria has secret nuclear sites.

Neither Syria nor the IAEA has confirmed any details since, or even said whether the delegation has arrived. But a woman at Vienna airport flight information, who declined to identify herself on the phone because she was not authorised to speak to the media, said the Austrian Airlines flight carrying the inspectors landed in Syria on Sunday afternoon, a few minutes ahead of schedule.

Secret programme

Damascus denies working on a secret nuclear programme but Washington hopes the UN agency team will find evidence backing US intelligence that a structure destroyed by Israeli war planes in September was a nearly completed plutonium-producing reactor.

If so, the IAEA visit could mark the start of massive investigation similar to the agency's five-year probe into Iran's activities. It could also draw in countries such as North Korea, which Washington says helped Damascus and Iran. Media reports also have linked Iran with Syria's nuclear efforts.

Syria agreed after months' delay to allow IAEA inspectors to visit the bombed Al Kibar, but not three other locations suspected as secret nuclear sites.

The agency has little formal inspection rights in Syria, which has declared only a rudimentary nuclear programme using a small 27-kilowatt reactor for research and the production of isotopes for medical and agricultural uses.

Al Watan said Syria, by allowing the IAEA visit, wished to demonstrate "its transparency and desire for peace and nuclear nonproliferation."

"However, the inspections should not turn into a series with protracted episodes similar to the Iraqi and Iranian" cases, it said, referring to IAEA's protracted probe during late Iraqi leader Saddam Hussain's rule, and the agency's tussle with Iran.

Al Watan also said the US nuclear accusations aim to turn the nuclear issue into a "sword hanging over Syria ... in what resembles a blackmail policy that might later turn into direct targeting."

The editorial also blasted Washington for 'protecting' Israel's alleged nuclear programme while going after countries whose policies it opposes, such as Iran, Syria and North Korea.