6-Jun-09: Facing the jihadists - a postscript

Further to our posting earlier today entitled "6-Jun-09: Facing the jihadists and their nuclear arsenals", an Associated Report filed yesterday puts some details to the general mounting concerns about the ongoing nuclear adventurism of the jihadists in Iran and Syria.

UN: New uranium traces found in Syria

By GEORGE JAHN, Associated Press Writer – Fri Jun 5, 5:14 pm ET

VIENNA – The U.N nuclear agency on Friday reported its second unexplained find of uranium particles at a Syrian nuclear site, in a probe launched by suspicions that a remote desert site hit by Israeli warplanes was a nearly finished plutonium producing reactor.

In a separate report, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran continued to expand its uranium enrichment program despite three sets of U.N. Security Council sanctions meant to pressure Tehran into freezing such activities. And it said the growing pace of enrichment is causing it to review its inspection routine so that it can maintain oversight of the process.

Iran and Syria are under IAEA investigation — Tehran, since revelations more than six years ago of undeclared nuclear activities that could be used to make weapons, and Syria after Israel bombed a structure in 2006 said by the U.S. to be a reactor built with North Korean help.

But the agency has made little progress for over a year in both cases, and both of the restricted reports made available to The Associated Press on Friday essentially confirmed the status quo — stonewalling by both countries of the two separate IAEA probes.