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Israel's Syria Raid Responded to Nuclear Proliferation Threat

[Wall Street Journal] Jay Solomon - Following Israel's attack on an alleged Syrian nuclear facility, the U.S. and international community are increasingly split over how to respond to the latest nuclear-proliferation threat in the Middle East, underscoring a deep mistrust between the U.S. and the IAEA, the UN nuclear watchdog, over how to confront would-be proliferators. "I would say there's no doubt now that Syria was in an early phase of a program," said a senior U.S. official who has worked extensively on nuclear issues. Some U.S. diplomats derided the IAEA for failing to identify the Syrian program itself. These U.S. officials said involving the IAEA before the Israeli strike could have bogged down the Syrian proliferation threat in endless rounds of negotiations at the UN Security Council, with no action. "The Israelis decided to take care of this early on," said the U.S. official working on nuclear-proliferation issues. "We don't want to involve an agency that thinks it's in control, but isn't."
2007-10-29 01:00:00
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