New York - Syria said Wednesday Israel did not bomb any targets in the country despite repeated news reports that a Syrian building suspected of being a nuclear facility had been attacked on September 6. The Washington Post reported Wednesday that satellite imagery of a building under construction along the Euphrates River with similar design to a North Korean reactor had been blown up by Israel in September. The Post cited independent experts as saying that the image was taken before the strike.
Syrian UN Ambassador Bashir Jaafari reacted to The Post's article, saying that the Israeli jet was prevented from carrying out the strike. He said the site along the Euphrates River was a centre for research on desertification run by the League of Arab States.
"There is no nuclear site in Syria," Jaafari told reporters at UN headquarters when asked for his comment. "We have all our installations under the nuclear safeguards agreement under the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)."
Jaafari said the IAEA regularly inspects the installations.
"Syria is part of the nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty," he said. "All these rumours have only one justification, which is to cover up the Israeli aggression against our sovereignty."
Jaafari said the Israeli jet was thwarted by the Syrian military from carrying out the strike and instead dropped its bomb and fuel and sped up outside the Syrian airspace.
