VIENNA (AFP) — Syria has yet to reply to a request from the UN atomic watchdog to let it inspect three or four sites allegedly involved in clandestine nuclear activities, diplomatic sources said Friday.
In June, Syria allowed a three-member team from the International Atomic Energy Agency to visit Al-Kibar in a remote desert area of northeastern Syria on the Euphrates River.
The United States claims the site, razed to the ground by Israeli planes in September 2007, was a nuclear facility built with North Korean help and was close to becoming operational.
But Syria has since ruled out a follow-up trip, saying it had agreed to one visit only.
At the time, diplomats had said the nuclear watchdog was also interested in two or three other sites, allegedly used to store the debris of the destroyed building.
A diplomat close to the IAEA told AFP on Friday that an official request by the IAEA to visit "three or four other sites" had so far gone unanswered by Damascus.
The request was apparently made after the IAEA received new information, probably from western secret services, the diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The findings of the initial visit, which was led by the nuclear watchdog's deputy director general Olli Heinonen, have still to be evaluated.
So the Syrian dossier is not officially on the agenda of next week's meeting of the IAEA's 35-member board.
But IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei is expected to talk about Syria in his opening address to the assembly on Monday, diplomats said.
And the dossier could be discussed in greater deal at the IAEA's next board meeting in November, by which time the findings of the first trip might be known, diplomats added.
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