Russia to Build Nuclear Power Plant in Syria?
For the first time since the Bolshevik Revolution, Russia’s president visited Syria. Of all the things to discuss and announce, Dmitri Medvedev and Bashar Assad held a press conference afterward where they announced that they had talked about nuclear cooperation, including the potential construction of a nuclear power plant in Syria. Any effort by Syria to get nuclear weapons capability must be seen as an extension of Iran’s own efforts.
By exporting part of their program to Syria, the Iranians can accelerate their own program or even suspend it to alleviate international pressure while continuing the work outside their borders. Any Israeli campaign to destroy the Iranian nuclear infrastructure will now require attacks on two countries. While the West seems to look at the nuclear programs of Iran, Syria, and North Korea as separate entities, they are in reality a Nuclear axis of evil with each partner contributing to the efforts of the others.
The success of the internationalization of WMD programs will cause other countries like Sudan, Burma, and Venezuela to join in, expediting their own pursuits while providing the overall alliance with additional security. This club can be likened to a modernized version of the AQ Khan network, where expertise, supplies, and technology are shared across borders.
In September 2007, Israel bombed a suspected nuclear reactor in Syria that was believed to be designed to create weapons-grade plutonium. Iran’s own nuclear reactor that could suit such a purpose has suffered from delay after delay by its Russian constructors. If the al-Kibar site in Syria were activated, this would allow Iran and Syria to pursue a nuclear bomb via plutonium in addition to the uranium track already being pursued.
The Syrians are clearly hiding the purpose of the site. A former senior German defense official says that North Korean shipments to the site had been detected since 2002, and the Syrians relied upon personal couriers for communication instead of radios and phones to stop Western intelligence from learning about their activity. Ali Reza Asghari, the former deputy defense minister of Iran who defected in 2007, claimed that Iranians were paying the North Koreans to develop the site. This same year, Syria received an estimated 45 tons of uranium yellowcake from North Korea, which is probably in Iran’s hands now.
Following the attack, satellite photos showed that the Syrians quickly began cleansing the site and removing the remains, which they are not allowing the IAEA to examine. The U.S. ambassador to the IAEA said that similar clean-ups were seen at two other nuclear sites after the agency asked about them. The site closely resembles the Yongbyon reactor in North Korea and is estimated by the CIA to have been capable of making enough plutonium for one or two bombs annually.
At least Israel won’t have to ask for fly-over rights to destroy it in a few years.
Maybe Obama with get the Russians to build power plants in the US.
Sooner, rather than later, the US and/or Russia will be attacked
with nuclear weapons developed in 2nd or 3rd world countries, and
the (remaining) 2/3 countries will surrender their arms, and allow
inspections, _or_else_; It would be nice if the Big Two were to be
proactive, rather than reactive, just this once.
Aren’t we the 2nd (new) world?
When Obama spoke in Cairo on June 4, 2009 I was glued to the television. A chill ran down my spine when I heard Obama say, ” No single nation should pick and choose which nations hold nuclear weapons. “.
With that one sentence Obama reversed a policy that has kept the world safe since the end of World War 2. The American position had been nuclear non-proliferation at any cost.
Obama spoke without Congressional input. With no discussion of foreign policy or military consequences.
Did Obama know he was letting the nuclear genie out of the bottle? What was to gain by uttering that sentence? Was he simply wooing the crowd?
The results speak for themselves. What many are calling the new Nuclear Axis of Evil.
Whatever the case one thing is clear- Every human being on the planet is at greater risk today because Obama couldn’t keep his mouth shut.
Obama makes Bush look like Superman.
Actually…Obama makes Carter look like superman.
AND Soon Obama will make sure the U.S., is a power of the past..we are already acting like one.
The Russians are outmaneuvering Obama across the globe. His supporters claim a huge victory in nuclear arsenal reductions between Russia and the USA but since the Cairo speech, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman,Egypt, Jordan and Libya have all announced nuclear initiatives.
I guess ” spread it around ” is Obama’s proliferation policy as well as his economic policy.
Add Syria to the list. Once again the Russians.