Israel Matzav

Syria: If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, smells like a duck and acts like a duck, it's a duck

The IAEA announced on Thursday that it found uranium and graphite at the site of a 'suspected' Syrian nuclear plant that was bombed by Israel in September 2007.

U.N. inspectors have found graphite as well as further uranium traces in test samples taken from a Syrian site Washington says was a secret graphite nuclear reactor, the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Thursday.

It was the first disclosure that graphite particles had turned up and a senior U.N. official said the discovery of additional uranium traces was a "significant" find, while stressing an IAEA investigation of Syria remained inconclusive.

If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, smells like a duck and acts like a duck, it's a duck. What's 'inconclusive' about that?

UPDATE FRIDAY 12:19 AM

At Pajamas Media, Richard Fernandez looks back at the strange story of Syria's al-Safir nuclear facility and what it all means (Hat Tip: Memeorandum). Here are the key paragraphs.

The front-loaded, bolt from the blue strike on Syria can retrospectively be understood as an Israeli message, delivered with tacit US support, that it would not tolerate a rival nuclear weapons power in the region. Israel served notice, by pulverizing the facility, that it regards this as an existential threat. The future significance of that fact lies in that, as Iran edges closer to developing its bomb, that it brings the region closer to that invisible tripwire. The inference is that if an Israeli response to Iran comes, it may arrive without warning.

As current diplomatic efforts to bring a comprehensive solution to the Middle East go forward, there is the danger that too much emphasis will be placed on the well known constituent parts: Gaza, West Bank, the two or one state concept, rights of return, settlements, Hezbollah, Hamas, the Golan Heights, the Shaba Farms — and too little consideration given to the larger context. The Sunni-Shi’ite tension between the capitals of the Arab world and the resurgent Persians; the excruciating existential position of Israel; the random effect of Islamic militancy — these are larger regional issues which find their most concentrated expression in the development of WMDs that throw a faint, but giant shadow over the Peace Process.

Read the whole thing.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:36 PM