US announces sanctions against Iran's Revolutionary Guards

For their part, Syrian officials denied that the satellite images showed nuclear facilities and characterized the report as "part of a continuing campaign of accusations against Syria." The Independent of Britain added that:

Syria admits co-operating with North Korea but says the two countries have no nuclear co-operation. The site is 100 miles from Syria's border with Iraq and close to an airstrip that would allow for easy transportation of personnel. "I'm pretty convinced that Syria was trying to build a nuclear reactor," Mr Albright told The Washington Post yesterday. However the Isis report said the images "raise as many questions as they answer".

Syria has denied the presence of a nuclear reactor, but TheJerusalem Post, citing evidence from US officials, says Syria has begun dismantling the remains of the building to hide any further evidence:

The dismantling of the damaged site, which appears to be still underway, could make it difficult for weapons inspectors to determine the precise nature of the facility and how Syria planned to use it, the [Washington] Post reported.

Meanwhile, UN experts were reported to have received satellite imagery of the site struck and were analyzing it for signs that it might have been a secret nuclear facility, diplomats said Friday.

The report comes amid increasing international accusations against Syria. The Washington Post reports that UN General-Secretary Ban Ki Moon released a report Wednesday "strongly suggesting that Syria has helped smuggle weapons to the Shiite movement Hizbullah and other armed groups, and that it sponsored Islamic militants involved in a military confrontation with the Lebanese Army earlier this year."

Responding to growing accusations against Syria, Walid Jumblatt, a political leader in Lebanon, has called on the US to impose sanctions, according to the Associated Press.

Jumblatt's accusations against Syria for the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005 and a string of political killings since then are not new, but leveling the blame against Hezbollah ups the ante between the anti-Syrian leader and the guerrilla group.

In an interview broadcast Sunday on CNN's "Late Edition," the political leader of Lebanon's minority Druse, an offshoot Islamic sect, accused Syria of trying to whittle down the anti-Syrian majority in Parliament through assassination to prevent the election of a president who does not answer to Syria.

Page: 1 | 2 | 3