As I wrote on June 23rd, the IAEA Board of Governors referred Syria to the UN Security Council over allegations, proven-ish, that it had covertly built a plutonium production reactor which the Israelis then destroyed in 2007. And, because Damascus has continued to block IAEA efforts to return to the Dair Alzour site to gather samples, the IAEA will not be able to make a solid determination beyond what they have concluded using samples gathered in 2008, classified intelligence and public satellite information.
At that time, most, including myself, knew that the referral would go nowhere given Russian and Chinese opposition to the IAEA vote. Now, this has come to pass. Neville Whiting, the IAEA’s director of nuclear safeguards for the Middle East, is scheduled to brief the council tomorrow on Syria’s failure to report the facility and refusal to cooperate with an investigation by the IAEA. But, the Russian government contends that there is no evidence that the Syrians did anything wrong and so the UNSC should not act. As charmingly put by Russia’s Deputy UN Ambassador Alexander Pankin, “In a crime investigation, if you don’t have a corpse you don’t have a case.” “There is nothing there. We are not an investigation team, we are the Security Council. We deal with imminent or coming threats.”
Obviously, Pankin’s determination that there is “no corpse” is in no way definitive, given that the Syrian government has blocked the IAEA’s efforts to do the autopsy.
Unfortunately, India and Brazil have joined on the UNSC do-nothing bandwagon, blocking action not only on this case, but also on a draft resolution that would condemn the Syrian government for repression of ongoing government protests.
And Syria’s Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari, clearly ignorant of the IAEA’s statute, said the Security Council shouldn’t be discussing the issue, claiming it’s the “IAEA’s business”. Except, of course, when the BOG refers a case to the UNSC. Nice try, though.
The upshot of all of this equivocating is yet another limp-wristed response to what is obviously a case of proliferation and covert nuclear activity.
