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"Uranium particles found by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Syria are an indication that a site bombed by Israel in 2007 could indeed have been a nuclear reactor, the organization said in a new report Thursday. The report included clearer language than previously used in IAEA analysis of the bombed site, known as al-Kibar or Dair Alzour, which Syria claims was not built for nuclear purposes. "The presence of such particles points to the possibility of nuclear-related activities at the site and adds questions concerning the nature of the destroyed building," IAEA chief Yukiya Amano wrote in his report to agency member states. "

"Syria's President Bashar al-Assad asked visiting Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to help remove nuclear weapons from the Middle East, state news agency SANA said. Assad called on Medvedev, the first Russian president to visit Syria, "to contribute in making the Middle East an area free from weapons of mass destruction, particularly nuclear weapons," the agency said. Syria along with many other countries, accuses Israel of having nuclear weapons. The Jewish state refuses to confirm or deny that it's armed with atomic warheads. Assad called for a diplomatic solution to the crisis over the nuclear program of Iran, his regional ally, which rejects Western accusations that it's developing atomic weapons. "

The head of Israeli Defense Ministry's Security-Diplomatic Bureau visited the Kremlin this week, intent upon convincing the Russians that equipping Iran, and perhaps Syria, with an upgraded version of their S-300 air defense system "would disturb the balance of power in the Middle East." What balance? The Russians had earlier supplied both Iran and Syria with the Tor-M1 short-range air defense system. Iran had positioned dozens of the units around its nuclear facilities, all of which - including the Russian-built about-to-be-fueled nuclear power plant at Bushehr - have long been subject to a Safeguards Agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The U.N. nuclear non-proliferation watchdog assiduously guards its impartiality as it monitors and investigates disputed activity in Iran and Syria, with suspicious Western powers impatient for the inspectors to draw conclusions. So the International Atomic Energy Agency typically puts what have become keenly anticipated, quarterly reports on Iran and Syria through many painstaking drafts before they see the light of day, to help ensure that not a single word can be misunderstood, misinterpreted or turned to political advantage.

Traces of uranium on a site in northern Syria were residue from Israeli missiles used to bomb the area in September 2007, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said on Tuesday. "The traces of uranium found on the site come from Israeli missiles launched during the destruction of the building. It is the only plausible explanation," Muallem said. The facility destroyed by Israel "was a military building that had no nuclear vocation," Muallem said at a joint news conference with visiting British Foreign Secretary David Miliband.

Syria's foreign minister suggested Wednesday that Israeli bombs may be the source of uranium traces that diplomats at the U.N. nuclear agency said were found at a suspected nuclear site. Walid al-Moallem said the diplomatic leaks about the traces found at the site, which was targeted by Israeli warplanes in September 2007, were politically motivated and aimed at pressuring Syria.

DUBAI (Reuters) - There is no evidence Syria has the skilled personnel or the fuel to operate a large-scale nuclear facility, the head of the United Nations atomic watchdog said in remarks aired on Tuesday.

Last week, Mohamed ElBaradei stepped down as the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, ending a 12-year tenure marked by confrontations with North Korea, Iran and Syria as well as public clashes with Washington. Three days into his retirement, the 67-year-old Egyptian lawyer and Nobel laureate talked with The Washington Post's intelligence reporter Joby Warrick to assess the prospects for a nuclear deal with Iran. He spoke publicly for the first time about the IAEA's landmark Nov. 27 resolution chastising Iran, and that country's defiant threat to expand its nuclear program. Excerpts: Has diplomacy with Iran finally reached a dead end?

Last week, Mohamed ElBaradei stepped down as the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, ending a 12-year tenure marked by confrontations with North Korea, Iran and Syria as well as public clashes with Washington. Three days into his retirement, the 67-year-old Egyptian lawyer and Nobel laureate talked with The Washington Post's intelligence reporter Joby Warrick to assess the prospects for a nuclear deal with Iran. He spoke publicly for the first time about the IAEA's landmark Nov. 27 resolution chastising Iran, and that country's defiant threat to expand its nuclear program. Excerpts: Has diplomacy with Iran finally reached a dead end?

Last week, Mohamed ElBaradei stepped down as the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, ending a 12-year tenure marked by confrontations with North Korea, Iran and Syria as well as public clashes with Washington. Three days into his retirement, the 67-year-old Egyptian lawyer and Nobel laureate talked with The Washington Post's intelligence reporter Joby Warrick to assess the prospects for a nuclear deal with Iran. He spoke publicly for the first time about the IAEA's landmark Nov. 27 resolution chastising Iran, and that country's defiant threat to expand its nuclear program. Excerpts: Has diplomacy with Iran finally reached a dead end?

"Russia may help build a nuclear power plant in Syria, Russia's energy minister said on Tuesday, a step that could upset the West due to unresolved allegations Damascus tried to construct a potential nuclear weapons facility in secret. World | Russia In 2007, Israel bombed to rubble what Washington said was a nascent, plutonium-producing nuclear reactor in Syria's desert and a U.N. nuclear watchdog probe to determine what the target was has stalled due to Syrian non-cooperation, diplomats say."

According to a report by The Associated Press, Mohamed ElBaradei, Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, finds it "baffling" that there are apparently no commercial satellite pictures available of a site in Syria taken in the months just after the Israelis allegedly destroyed whatever was allegedly there prior to September 6th, 2007. Except, of course, for the before/after photos, allegedly taken via commercial satellite, somehow obtained and published [.pdf] last year by David Albright at the Institute for Science and International Security.

Do the new US pictures prove Syria was building a nuclear reactor? Not definitively. The new pictures do strengthen the impression that a reactor was being built before the Israeli air raid last September, but there remain questions about the provenance of the pictures and the timing of their publication, with the experience of Iraq in mind. Analysts at the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN's nuclear watchdog, question why there is no sign of security measures around the site, and say the building does not seem high enough for a reactor.

"North Korea was helping Syria build a plutonium-producing nuclear reactor before Israel bombed the site last September, the Bush administration is set to tell Congress. The new information could increase the position of hard-liners in Congress and the administration who have argued against a deal being negotiated to dismantle North Korea's nuclear-weapons program. The hard-liners say Pyongyang hasn't provided enough assurances it will dismantle its atomic arsenal in return for economic and diplomatic incentives.

An ideological split at International Atomic Energy Agency is slowing the search for a new chief at a time the organization tasked with keeping nuclear arms away from rogue states needs a firm hand at the rudder. The longer the delay, the greater the fear that Iran, and possibly Syria, could forge ahead with allegedly illicit nuclear activities with more impunity. For months, the IAEA's hands have been tied in its probes of the two nations' nuclear programs as internal bickering and the agency's weak mandate prevent it from taking effective action. The hunt is on for a leader who can help unite the fractious 35-nation board for joint decisions on crucial nonproliferation issues.

The head of the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog said Monday that tests were inconclusive on the source of traces of uranium found at a Syrian site bombed by Israel. The United States has said that site was an almost completed plutonium-producing reactor. International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei made the comments following a speech in Dubai in which he called for greater international dialogue.

While the Republicans were nominating Sarah Palin - who reportedly believes the Bush-Cheney war of aggression against Iraq was inevitable, part of "God's plan" - French President Nicolas Sarkozy was in Damascus, warning the "leaders of Syria, Turkey and Qatar" that an Israeli attack on Iran also appears to be inevitable. In comments broadcast on Syrian television, Sarkozy said "One day - whatever the Israeli government - we could find one morning that Israel has struck.

The destruction of a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor last year was the result of an intelligence collaboration that included a "foreign partner" who first identified the facility's purpose, CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden said on Tuesday. The reactor at the desert outpost of Al-Kibar was flattened in an air strike on September 6, 2007 that senior U.S. intelligence officials have said was carried out by Israel on its own initiative.

A year after its jets bombed a Syrian facility which U.S. officials openly described as a secret nuclear reactor, Israel still refuses to give an account -- not even formally confirming the raid ever happened. Such reticence is unusual for a country steeped in military myth. Israel's fractious politics, dominated by ex-generals, has long made war stories a staple part of the national discourse.

April 28, 2008 -- Syria, a member of George W. Bush's "Axis of Evil", is in the spotlight again as an alleged recipient of nuclear technology from North Korea and a potential producer of nuclear weapons. We have heard it all before but even if it is true, and let us assume it is true, there is more to this accusation than what meets the eye. We need to revisit what the courageous whistleblower, Sibel Edmonds, testified to behind closed doors in the Senate.

The CIA published three aerial photographs last week purporting to show a Syrian nuclear reactor, bombed by Israel last September. But are the pictures all that they seem? Doubts about their authenticity have been raised by Professor William Beeman, head of anthropology at the University of Minnesota, who has had a long involvement with the Middle East.

Key member states plan in the coming weeks to elect a new leader of the U.N. agency charged with probing Iran's nuclear program, pressing Syria to reveal its atomic secrets and thwarting terrorists from getting the bomb. The two men vying for the post of director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency are a study in contrasts. One, a low-key Japanese career diplomat, would be expected to depoliticize the agency. The other, a South African former anti-apartheid activist, promises a more hands-on approach to mediating nuclear crises. The vote by the IAEA's 35-nation board will therefore have significant repercussions for how the agency deals with the nuclear weapons and safety challenges confronting the world. Whether the winner is Japan's Yukiya Amano or South Africa's Abdul Samad Minty there is consensus that he will have large shoes to fill.