IAEA Accused of Exaggeration

The International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, was exaggerating when it said it found uranium traces at an alleged secret nuclear site, according to a February 24 opinion article in pro-government newspaper Al-Watan.



(In a February 19 report obtained by news agency the Associated Press, AP, the UN nuclear agency said that samples it took from a Syrian site suspected of being a secretly built reactor revealed new traces of processed uranium.)



In the Al-Watan piece, journalist Ibrahim Darraji called on the IAEA to be more transparent and to explain why its report coincided with European and American overtures toward Damascus.



Darraji suggested that the timing of the report was suspicious and could indicate that someone wanted to construct an obstacle to improved relations between Syria and western countries.



He concluded by cautioning the IAEA “not to make history repeat itself” by treating Syria “the way it treated Iraq”.