Yesterday Secretary Clinton announced that the Obama Administration was sending two senior officials to Damascus this weekend to "discuss bilateral issues." Oddly, in their write-up of the announcement, the Times and Post both neglected to mention one of the key reasons behind the meltdown in U.S.-Syrian relations in recent years, namely its development, with North Korean assistance, and ongoing cover-up, of a covert nuclear program. Instead, Mark Landler and Glenn Kessler both repeat the argument, fashionable in some think-tank circles these days and likely fed to them by the administration, that Syria might be convinced to distance itself from Tehran and end its support for terrorism, thus reshaping the Middle East.
One would hope that even in the midst of these machinations about grand strategy, the administration intends to include among the "bilateral issues" to be discussed what is really a multilateral issue, namely Syria's continued stonewalling of the International Atomic Energy Organization (IAEA) investigation into its covert nuclear reactor, which was destroyed by Israel in September 2007.
As the most recent IAEA Director-General's report to the Board of Governors highlights, Syria continues to obstruct the investigation. After allowing one visit by IAEA inspectors to the site last summer, Syria refused to cooperate further until the sampling results were available. When the IAEA revealed that the samples showed evidence of man-made uranium at the site, Syria said the uranium particles must have come from the Israeli bombs dropped on the site. Now the Syrians have reportedly built a missile facility at the former reactor site, enhancing their argument that because it is a sensitive military facility they cannot allow additional access to the site or other related sites the IAEA is interested in visiting.
One hopes the Obama administration won't be as quick to forget Syria's nuclear program as the Washington Post and New York Times. Ignoring or papering over this serious issue sends a message to other nuclear wannabes that there are no consequences for those who violate their Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty commitments and try to get their hands on the world's most dangerous weapons.
