There is no clear evidence Syria has the fuel or the human resources to operate a large-scale nuclear facility, the
Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Tuesday.
In an interview with the Dubai-based al-Arabiya television station,
Mohamed al-Baradei said the IAEA only had pictures of a site in Syria bombed by
Israel last year that resembles a nuclear facility.
Al-Arabiya only aired part of the interview.
In the interview, to be aired in full on Friday, the head of the UN nuclear
watchdog called on Damascus to cooperate with IAEA inspectors to probe the
nuclear claims.
At the beginning of this month, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said in press
remarks that his country would cooperate with UN inspectors due to visit this
month.
The IAEA added Syria to its proliferation watch list in April
after receiving US intelligence photos suggesting Damascus had almost finished
building a nuclear reactor in secret with North Korean help before Israel destroyed it in an airstrike in September, dpa
reported.