April 25, 2008
SYRIA'S ambassador to the United States has dismissed the White House's claim today that North Korea had helped it build a nuclear reactor as a "ridiculous story".
Imad Moustapha said on CNN that he had been called into the US State Department today, where officials "told me a ridiculous story about an alleged Syria nuclear project".
He said they showed him "ridiculous satellite-taken photographs of a building in the Syrian desert, saying this is a nuclear reactor".
"I had to remind them that it is on one hand preposterous. And on the other hand there is something silly about this. Not a single security guard. No barbed wire," the ambassador said.
He added: "It's just photographs of vacant buildings".
The White House publicly accused North Korea today of helping Syria build a nuclear reactor able to produce plutonium and said the facility was "not intended for peaceful purposes".
Spokeswoman Dana Perino said the reactor was "damaged beyond repair" on September 6, 2007 - the date of a mysterious Israeli air strike in Syria - and demanded Damascus "come clean" on its nuclear activities...
photos, story:
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23596641-23109,00.html
