UN censures US and Israel over Syria nuclear row

This article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Friday April 25 2008. It was last updated at 15:09 on April 25 2008.

Link to this video
The White House claims the video is evidence that North Korea helped Syria build a secret nuclear reactor

The UN's nuclear chief today criticised the US for the delay in publishing what Washington claims is proof that a Syrian nuclear reactor was built with help from North Korea.

Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, was briefed yesterday by the US under-secretary of state for arms control, shortly before the director of the CIA, Michael Hayden, briefed members of Senate and House committees on the same intelligence.

"The director general deplores the fact that this information was not provided to the agency in a timely manner, in accordance with the agency's responsibilities under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, to enable it to verify its veracity and establish the facts," ElBaradei said in a statement today.

He was critical of Israel's bombing of the site of the alleged reactor. "The director general views the unilateral use of force by Israel as undermining the due process of verification that is at the heart of the nonproliferation regime," the statement said. Guardian