Mick Hartley

On the mysterious Israeli strike on Syria, from Haaretz:

An American Mideast expert said the alleged Israel Air Force strike in northern Syria last week was directly connected to a shipment Syria received from North Korea three days earlier, the Washington Post reported Saturday.

The expert spoke on condition of anonymity in order to protect his sources, who the report said are comprised of “Israeli participants” in the strike. He said the shipment was labeled as cement, but Israel believed it carried nuclear equipment.

The U.S. daily said the expert believed the IAF strike targeted a facility the Syrians claim serves as an “agricultural research center,” but Israel believes is used to extract uranium from phosphates…

While neither side has explained what exactly happened in the early hours of September 6, a number of Israeli and American officials have speculated that the alleged attack was designed to thwart the possible development of Syrian nuclear capabilities.

Saturday’s statements come amid a growing number of reports on possible Syrian-North Korean nuclear cooperation. A senior U.S. nuclear official said on Friday that North Koreans were in Syria and that Damascus may have had contacts with secret suppliers to obtain nuclear technology.

“Syria was on the U.S. nuclear watch list,” said acting deputy assistant secretary for nuclear nonproliferation policy Andrew Semmel, asserting that foreign technicians were in the country and that there had been possible contacts with suppliers for nuclear equipment.

Semmel didn’t name the suppliers, but said that he couldn’t exclude that the network run by disgraced Pakistan nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan was possibly involved.

The Washington Post reported Thursday that Israel had gathered satellite imagery showing possible North Korean cooperation with Syria on a nuclear facility.

North Korea, which has a long alliance with Syria, condemned the Israeli air incursion. Israeli experts say North Korea and Iran both have been major suppliers of Syria’s missile stock.

“There are indicators that they do have something going on there, he said,” Semmel said. “We do know that there are a number of foreign technicians that have been in Syria. We do know that there may have been contact between Syria and some secret suppliers for nuclear equipment. Whether anything transpired remains to be seen.”

“So good foreign policy, good national security policy, would suggest that we pay very close attention to that,” he said. “We’re watching very closely. Obviously, the Israelis were watching very closely.”

Asked if the suppliers could have been North Koreans, he said: “There are North Korean people there. There’s no question about that. Just as there are a lot of North Koreans in Iraq and Iran.”