Syria linked to 'secret supplies' of nuclear equipment

NICOLE WINFIELD IN ROME

SYRIA may have had contacts with "secret suppliers" to obtain nuclear equipment, and officials from North Korea have visited the country, a senior US nuclear official said yesterday.

Andrew Semmel, the acting deputy assistant secretary of state for nuclear nonproliferation policy, did not name the suppliers, but said he could not exclude that the network run by disgraced Pakistan nuclear scientist A Q Khan had been involved.

He was responding to questions about an Israeli air strike in northern Syria last week. Neither side has explained what exactly happened, but a US government official confirmed Israeli war planes were targeting weapons from Iran and destined for Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. The Washington Post said on Thursday that Israel had gathered satellite images showing possible North Korean co-operation with Syria on a nuclear facility.

Mr Semmel, who is in Italy for a meeting today on the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, said Syria was certainly on the US nuclear "watch list".

"There are indicators that they do have something going on there," he said. "We do know there are a number of foreign technicians that have been in Syria.

"We do know there may have been contact between Syria and some secret suppliers for nuclear equipment. Whether anything transpired remains to be seen.

"So good foreign policy, good national-security policy, would suggest we pay very close attention to that.

"We're watching very closely. Obviously, the Israelis were watching very closely."

Asked if the suppliers could have been North Koreans, he said: "There are North Korean people there ... just as there are a lot of North Koreans in Iraq and Iran."

Asked if the so-called Khan network, which supplied nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea, could have been involved, he said he "wouldn't exclude it".