nuclear-news

The dispute at the opening session of this week’s 35-nation International Atomic Energy Agency board meeting appeared to be eclipsing the usual focus on Iran and suspicions that it is interested in acquiring nuclear weapons. Iran denies such goals and with IAEA efforts to probe the allegations at a standstill, IAEA chief Yukiya Amano had nothing new to report on the issue in his opening comments to the meeting.

Instead, the morning meeting focused on Russia’s request, backed by Cuba, and U.S. rejection of the appeal. Caught in the middle was Amano. A Sept. 5 letter to Amano from the Russian foreign ministry obtained Monday by The Associated Press repeated Russian concerns expressed last week by ministry officials, warning of “catastrophic” consequences if a research reactor near Damascus is hit.

“There is a probability of contamination of (the) surrounding area with highly-enriched uranium and fission products,” said the letter, whose circulation was restricted to the 35-nations on the agency’s board. Additionally, it warned that the material could fall into the hands of terrorists.

The agency last week agreed to consider an assessment of such dangers after receipt of the letter. On Thursday, two diplomats who were inside the closed IAEA meeting cited Russian envoy Grigory Berdennikov as saying urgent action was needed on the Russian request. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press about the session.

But in comments made available to media, chief U.S. delegate Joseph Macmanus argued there were no grounds for the agency to conduct “a highly speculative investigation of this kind” because it was not part of the IAEA’s mandate.  http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/russia-presses-un-to-report-on-risks-of-possible-u-s-attack-on-syria-1.1446451#ixzz2eW6AiGtJ