Russian Representative to IAEA Denies Existence of Nuke Infrastructure in Syria

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Syria has never had an infrastructure to develop a nuclear program, Russian Permanent Representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Mikhail Ulyanov told Sputnik, stressing that the story on the issue had been fabricated.

"There is no logical explanation for this version, because no one needs a reactor itself. It is needed theoretically in addition to… other relevant infrastructure, which Syria has never had. We have a clear understanding that the whole story has been fabricated," Ulyanov said Monday during a video conference at the Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency.

He also noted that it "seemed strange" that Washington revealed this information "ex post facto."

In March, Israel declassified an information that more than 10 years ago an Israeli airstrike destroyed an alleged nuclear reactor that was under construction in Syria's Deir ez-Zor province. According to Ulyanov, the United States later informed the IAEA secretariat that it allegedly was a nuclear reactor to produce weapons-grade plutonium.

The authorities in Damascus did not recognize that the destroyed facility was a nuclear reactor and said that the airstrikes hit an empty site belonging to the inter-Arab scientific association for the development of agriculture.

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