VIENNA — Freshly evaluated soil and air samples from a Syrian site bombed by Israel on suspicion it was a covert nuclear reactor provide enough evidence to push ahead with a U.N probe, diplomats said Tuesday.
The findings are important after months of uncertainty about the status of the investigation by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Preliminary results regarding environmental samples collected from the site by an IAEA team and made public earlier this year were inconclusive. But the diplomats told The Associated Press that the IAEA’s final evaluation, completed a few days ago, has the agency convinced it needs to press on with its investigation.
The U.S. says the facility hit by Israeli warplanes nearly 13 months ago was a nearly completed reactor that — when on line — could produce plutonium, a pathway to nuclear arms.
Damascus denies running a covert program. The Associated Press
