The resumption of peace talks with Israel, tighter control of the border with Iraq, leaning on Hamas to show more flexibility concerning the proposed truce with Israel, and having contributed to resolving the constitutional crisis in Lebanon, do not seem to have impressed Washington or convince it to ease the pressure on Damascus. On the contrary, the Bush administration is moving to tighten the noose around Syria's neck. On Wednesday, the US demanded Syria to give free access to UN nuclear investigators to sites Washington claims to have been linked to a secret atomic reactor.
The story of the alleged nuclear rector was made public last September when Israeli warplanes penetrated deep into Syrian territories and destroyed the Al Kibar site in the north-east desert of the country. The Bush administration rushed to exploit the incident, claiming that Damascus was close to completing a reactor that could have yielded plutonium for nuclear arms. Syria denied the allegation, saying that the bombed site was a disused military building and that it has no clandestine nuclear programme.
Last April, the US administration raised the stakes by giving the Congress a green light to hold a hearing session on the subject and provided the UN nuclear watchdog - the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) - with intelligence documentation to pursue an inquiry. The information included before and after aerial photographs of the alleged reactor as well as detailed interior photographs of what it said were key components.
To the chagrin of the Bush administration, Syria invited the UN inspectors on June 22-24 to pursue the inquiry. The Syrian approval meant to suggest that Damascus has absolutely nothing to hide and that the US will not be given new ammunition to fire at Syria. But, the crisis is far from being over even if the IAEA inspectors exonerate Syria from attempting to possess nuclear weapons. The US has in fact demanded that Syria should allow inspection not only for the destroyed site but also to three other locations. The US request is meant to trap Damascus so that if it agrees to further inspection it would jeopardise its national security; if it refuses to comply, doubts will mount about the nature of its programme and the US will take the case to the UN Security Council.
Inspection
As things stand today, Damascus does not seem to be willing to accept UN inspection of other military sites. Syrian Atomic Energy Agency chief Ebrahim Othman has already stated that his government would not permit checks of other sites Washington had urged inspectors to examine as possible places for processing nuclear materials. The sites mentioned by the US, Syria argues, are off-limits military installations essential to national security and irrelevant to the IAEA because they had no nuclear connection. Right or wrong, Syria fears that its military secrets may end up in Israel's hand.
Syria's worst nightmare, however, would be that if it opts for more openness that would almost certainly lead to years of relentless international perusal of the kind Iran's nuclear programme is now undergoing.
Worst still, Syria suspects that the US might be pursuing an Iraqi-like scenario, wherein verdict is made regardless of the evidence. Washington has already tried to incriminate Syria based on satellite photographs their authenticity could not be established. US officials have even tried to pre-empt any international inspection that might exonerate Syria by claiming that Damascus "has bulldozed and swept clean the Al Kibar zone since the Israeli raid and erected a new building over it".
In dealing with the IAEA inspection, Syria needs to tackle the issue with utmost seriousness. The slightest mistake would no doubt be exploited by the Bush administration, which seems keen to penalise Damascus for resisting US policies in the region.
Dr Marwan Kabalan is a lecturer in media and international relations, Faculty of Political Science and Media, Damascus University, Syria.
