Russia warns against using IAEA to settle scores with Syria

Russia has called for not politicizing and exploiting the work of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Syria, warning against using the body to settle scores with the Damascus government. 

The Russian delegation told the ongoing session of the Board of Governors of the IAEA that there was no reason to keep Syria on the agenda of the Governing Council, official news agency SANA reported on Thursday.

The Russian official stressed the need to focus efforts instead on solving the real issues related to the non-proliferation regime, the report said.

“Member states should leave politicized attempts to exploit inspections of the International Atomic Energy Agency for the purpose of settling scores with Damascus. Instead, it is necessary to focus joint efforts on finding solutions to the real issues of the non-proliferation regime and ways to strengthen the safeguards system.”

The Russian delegation affirmed that Damascus had been fulfilling all its commitments under the Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement (CSA), and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

The agency “had confirmed several times in recent years that Damascus fulfills its obligations, as inspections are carried out at declared nuclear sites, and there is no evidence that nuclear materials have begun to be used for purposes other than allowed,” it said

The IAEA in recent years has been investigating US claims that Syria allegedly tried to build a secret nuclear reactor at a remote desert site in Dayr al-Zawr in 2007, which no longer exists.

The Syrian government also surrendered its stockpiles of chemical weapons in 2014 to a joint mission led by the UN and the the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which oversaw the destruction of the weaponry. However, Western governments and their allies have never stopped pointing the finger at Damascus whenever an apparent chemical attack has taken place.

Syria and some other regional countries have time and again called on the international community not to turn a blind eye to Israel’s nuclear activities and compel the Tel Aviv regime to join the NPT.

They say given the Tel Aviv regime’s hostile nature and its tendency to wage wars and occupy lands, its unsupervised nuclear facilities and capabilities raise concerns for many countries. 

Israel ignores all resolutions issued by international organizations on its nuclear activities and facilities. 

The US and its Western allies have been severally criticized for helping Israel develop its nuclear facilities and adopting double-standards on the issue of non-proliferation policies when it comes to Israel.

Israel has never allowed any inspections of its nuclear facilities and continues to defy international calls to join the NPT. 

Newly-released satellite images last month revealed that the Israeli regime — the sole possessor of nuclear arms in the Middle East — is conducting “significant” constructive activities at the highly-secretive Dimona nuclear facility in the Negev Desert. 

Citing commercial satellite imagery of the facility, the International Panel on Fissile Material (IPFM), a group of independent nuclear experts from 17 countries, reported that “significant new construction” had been underway at the Dimona complex.

Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. The Syrian government says the Israeli regime and its Western and regional allies are aiding Takfiri terrorist groups that are wreaking havoc in the country.

Syrian government forces have taken back many areas once controlled by the terrorist groups.

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