Syrien

[Skywalker]

SYRIA BELIEVED TO HAVE CENTRIFUGES


WASHINGTON [MENL] -- The United States has assessed that Syria acquired components for centrifuges for the enrichment of uranium in what could be the most significant step in that Arab country's nascent nuclear weapons program.

U.S. officials said Syria was believed to have been a client of a nuclear smuggling network led by Pakistani nuclear chief Abdul Qadeer Khan. They said the U.S. intelligence community obtained evidence that the Khan network sold and delivered components for an unspecified number of Pakistani-designed P1 centrifuges to Syria.

Khan was said to have sold nuclear technology and components to such countries as Iran, Libya and North Korea. But the officials said Damascus through Firas Tlas, the son of Syrian Defense Minister Mustafa Tlas, became a customer of Khan in 2001.

The centrifuge components and other nuclear equipment were ordered by the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein via Syria, officials said. The centrifuges and nuclear equipment were said to have reached Iraq through Syria and deliveries might have continued after the fall of the Saddam regime in April 2003.

Quelle: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.menewsline.com/stories/2004/august/08_26_3.html">http://www.menewsline.com/stories/2004/ ... _26_3.html</a><!-- m -->

SYRIA PUSHES ISLAMISTS TO IRAQ


LONDON [MENL] -- The regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad has pursued a policy of exporting Islamic unrest to neighboring Syria.

Islamic sources in contact with opposition groups in Syria said the Assad regime has encouraged Islamic insurgents to relocate in Iraq and fight the U.S.-led coalition in that country. The sources said Assad has assured these insurgents safe passage to and from Iraq in an effort to prevent Islamic unrest in his country.

Sheik Omar Bakri Mohammed, a Syrian native and Islamic exile in London, said Assad's policy has been successful. Mohammed, founder of the Al Qaida-inspired Al Muhajiroun, pointed out that Islamic insurgents have not attacked the Syrian regime in about 20 years. In June, Syria reported an Islamic attack in Damascus, but Western intelligence agencies have raised doubts.

"That is because they [Islamic insurgents] are busy elsewhere, particularly in Iraq," Mohammed said in an interview to the Washington-based Jamestown Foundation.

Quelle: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.menewsline.com/stories/2004/august/08_26_1.html">http://www.menewsline.com/stories/2004/ ... _26_1.html</a><!-- m -->