US blasts Syria's non-compliance with NPT safeguards agreement

VIENNA, Nov 27 (KUNA) -- US Representative to the Vienna Office of the United Nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Henry S. Ensher on Friday appreciated the commitment of the Agency's Director-General Yukiya Amano to addressing the important issue of Syria's non-compliance with its safeguards agreement.
This issue "remains as urgent today as when it was first raised to the Board's attention. We note that Syria has taken no actions to address this non-compliance," he said in a statement to the IAEA Board of Governors.
"This inaction has been the standard since this Board found Syria to be in noncompliance with its NPT safeguards agreement more than four years ago. "At that time, this Board called on Syria to remedy urgently its noncompliance, to provide the Agency with access to all information, sites, materials, and persons necessary to verify the exclusively peaceful nature of its nuclear program, and to sign and bring into force an Additional Protocol. "Unfortunately, the Assad regime has taken no steps since that Board finding, and in fact has taken no steps in over seven years to remedy its noncompliance or to address the international community's concerns regarding the nature and scope of its nuclear program," Ensher pointed out.
"Likewise, Syria's refusal to sign and implement the Additional Protocol denies the Agency the necessary tools to provide assurances regarding the completeness and accuracy of its declarations.
"The United States takes note of the recent physical inventory verification of the Syrian miniature neutron source reaction (MNSR), and commends the Agency's inspectors for undertaking this activity under difficult security arrangements.
"However, we underscore that this work is a normal inspection of a declared facility in Syria, a routine action required by Syria's safeguards agreement, and does not at all address Syria's ongoing non-compliance, nor its continued failure to cooperate with the IAEA to remedy that non-compliance," he went on.
"To do so, Syria must engage substantively with the Agency without further delay, and provide access to all relevant locations, materials, and persons that it retains reasonable access to, including the three sites with a potentially functional relationship to the reactor at Dair Alzour. "Until Syria fully cooperates to resolve the international community's concerns, the Board must remain seized of this matter, and should be prepared to consider further action if necessary," he concluded. (end) amg.gb