Damascus, Syria – Syria and North Korea denied Tuesday that they are cooperating on a Syrian nuclear program, and they accused U.S. officials of spreading the allegations for political reasons – either to back Israel or to block progress on a deal between Washington and Pyongyang.
A front-page editorial in the Syrian government newspaper Tishrin also criticized the U.S. for failing to condemn a Sept. 6 Israeli air incursion, which it called a violation of international law.
Details of the incursion remain unclear. Israel clamped a news blackout on the raid, and Syria said only that warplanes entered its airspace, came under fire from anti-aircraft defenses and dropped munitions and fuel tanks to lighten their loads while they fled.
U.S. officials have said Israeli warplanes struck a target. A military officer said Israel targeted weapons being shipped to Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, but another official’s comments raised speculation the Israelis targeted a nuclear installation.
Andrew Semmel, acting U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for nuclear nonproliferation policy, said Syria may have had contacts with “secret suppliers” to obtain nuclear equipment. He did not identify the suppliers, but said that North Koreans were in Syria and that he could not exclude involvement by the network run by the disgraced Pakistan nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan.
North Korea strongly denied it secretly helped Syria develop a nuclear program, maintaining the accusation was fabricated by U.S. hard-liners to block progress in the North’s relations with the United States.
Syrian Cabinet minister Bouthaina Shaaban ridiculed the speculation about any cooperation with North Korea: “All this rubbish is not true. I don’t know how their imagination has reached such creativity.”
