A confidential copy of a draft resolution by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which would call for Syria to face consequences for its nuclear transgressions, is now being privately circulated among the IAEA’s 35-nation Board of Governors, in the hopes of getting it approved by the board this week in Vienna, Austria. The United States, Britain, and other partners are standing behind this resolution.
Under the draft resolution, the IAEA’s Board of Governors would find Syria to be in “non-compliance” with its international nuclear obligations for secretly building (with North Korea’s assistance) a plutonium producing nuclear reactor at the Al Kibar facility near the town of Dair Alzour — a facility that was destroyed by a surprise Israeli airstrike in September 2007. The measure would refer Syria to the U.N. Security Council, which could opt to impose international sanctions on the Assad regime comparable to those already on Iran.
