Syria's decision to allow international inspections astounded diplomats and analysts. "What's the point?" said Jeffrey Lewis, an arms control expert at the New America Foundation, a Washington think tank. "What do [the Syrians] get out of it? They don't get anything out of it as far as I can see."
ElBaradei, an Egyptian diplomat, has been criticized by neoconservatives in Washington as being too soft in dealing with Iran's nuclear program. The IAEA chief has implicitly criticized the Israeli shoot-first-and-ask-for-inspections-later policy, which he said prevented his agency from probing the Syrian site.
"It is deeply regrettable that information concerning this installation was not provided to the agency in a timely manner and that force was resorted to unilaterally before the agency was given an opportunity to establish the facts," ElBaradei said.
Regarding Iran, ElBaradei said the documents pointing to weapons-related atomic research "remain a matter of serious concern." He noted that after a period of reluctance Iran had agreed to discuss the documents, which originally came to light through a smuggled laptop computer. Iran contends the documents are forgeries.
But he also said the agency had found no conclusive evidence of a nuclear weapons program. He said Western intelligence agencies that provided his agency with the studies were hindering inspectors' work by not allowing them to show the documents to Iranian officials.
Release of at least some of the documents, he said, "would clearly help the agency in its investigations."
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daragahi@latimes.com
