BICOM

UN investigators have identified a previously unknown complex in Syria that supports allegations that the Syrian government worked with A.Q. Khan, the father of Pakistan’s nuclear programme, to acquire technology that could be used to make nuclear weapons. The complex, located in northwest Syria in the city of Al-Hasakah, closely matches the design of a uranium enrichment plant provided to Libya when Muammar Gadhafi was attempting to construct a nuclear weapons capability under Khan’s guidance, officials told Associated Press. Associated Press also reports that the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) obtained correspondence between Khan and Muhidin Issa, the then-Syrian deputy minister of education, who proposed scientific cooperation and a visit to Khan’s laboratories following Pakistan’s successful nuclear test in 1998.

The buildings in the city of Al-Hasakah now appear to be inactive, and investigators have found no sign that they were ever used for nuclear production. However, given the destruction of a suspected plutonium production reactor in Syria in 2007, the unlikely coincidence in design suggests that Syria may have been pursuing a two-track route to an atomic bomb, utilising uranium as well as plutonium. The Syrian regime has repeatedly denied pursuing nuclear weapons but has prevented an investigation of the destroyed site.

In other Syrian-related news, the Arab League is currently awaiting the response of the Syrian regime to a plan presented to Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem on Monday at a meeting of senior Arab diplomats in Doha, Qatar. The Arab League plan for Syria includes the release of all prisoners arrested in the context of the unrest since February, deployment of Arab League monitors in Syria and the beginning of dialogue between the Syrian regime and the opposition. Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani said that it was obligatory for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to begin a process of reform, so as to avoid what has happened in ‘other Arab countries’, an apparent reference to the fate of the Gadhafi regime in Libya. In recent days, 61 civilians and 30 soldiers have been killed in clashes in Syria, according to opposition sources.