Syrian nuclear issue looms large at IAEA meet

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2008

VIENNA (AFP) — The UN's atomic watchdog, already mired in a marathon investigation into Iran's nuclear programme, is set to embark on what could prove an equally contentious probe of allegations of a secret nuclear reactor in Syria.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei announced Monday that a team of inspectors would travel to Syria later this month in the wake of US intelligence reports that a building bombed by Israel last September was a covert nuclear installation built for military purposes.

According to one western diplomat here, it is still too early to predict how the Syrian issue will pan out.

"We'll know a lot more come September, by which time the inspectors will have visited Syria," the diplomat said Tuesday, speaking...