June 25, 2008	Wednesday	Jamadi-us-Sani 20, 1429

VIENNA, June 24: UN nuclear officials have inspected the remote site in the Syrian desert which the US alleges was a covert nuclear plant, a diplomat said on Tuesday.

The diplomat gave no further details. But experts were doubtful that Syria would be able to claim its innocence even if the IAEA inspectors found nothing suspicious at the site.

“If the inspectors don’t find anything, it won’t prove Syria’s innocence, of course,” said Mark Fitzpatrick, non-proliferation expert at the International Institute of Stratetic Studies.

The IAEA’s deputy director general, Olli Heinonen, flew to Syria on Sunday for a three-day trip to investigate allegations that a mysterious site bombed by Israel last year had been a covert nuclear nuclear reactor nearing completion.

The US claims Al-Kibar, razed to the ground by Israeli planes in September, was a nuclear facility built with N. Korean help and close to becoming operational.

—AFP