October 23, 2007	Tuesday	Shawwal 10, 1428

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 22: The United Nations has apologised to Syria over an interpreter’s error that created the wrong impression that Damascus admitted that an Israeli air strike last month targeted a Syrian nuclear site, a spokesman said on Monday.

“An apology has been given to the Syrian mission regarding the interpretation error and accepted by them as an unintended mistake,” spokesman Farhan Haq said in a statement.

“The interpreter who was responsible for the unfortunate mistake has been given a note of reprimand,” he added.

Based on the interpreter’s error, a UN transcript last week suggested that a Syrian delegate told the General Assembly’s disarmament committee that the September 6 Israeli air strike targeted a nuclear installation in Syria.

A review of the delegate’s remarks made in Arabic ascertained that he never referred to a nuclear site.

The Syrian delegate, Bassam Darwish, issued a statement welcoming the UN apology for the “grave error” which, he said, had caused confusion, leading to political consequences which were used to defame his country and his delegation.

The NYT last week reported that Israeli warplanes bombed a site that Israeli and US intelligence believe was a partly built nuclear reactor possibly modelled after one in North Korea. —AFP