The Syrian Foreign Minister, Asaad Al-Shaibani, said that the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency closed on September 9 the non-compliance clause that had been open against Syria since 2011, and permanently removed it from its agenda, considering the step the beginning of a new chapter of cooperation between Damascus and the agency.
Al-Shaibani explained, during the seventieth session of the General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, today, that Syria has taken steps since last July to open the file of cooperation with the agency, which included sending an official letter on July 17 in which it disclosed the presence of nuclear materials in an undeclared location, before signing a memorandum of understanding with the agency on July 29, coupled with a road map for the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
He added that Syria opened the Deir ez-Zor site to the agency, with its general director being the first to set foot on the site on August 16, after nearly two decades of closure, noting that work had begun with the agency’s experts to remove the remains of the reactor from under the layers of reinforced concrete. He said that Syria had provided the design information and nuclear material inventory reports that the Board of Governors had been demanding since 2011, adding that 73 tons of natural uranium were under the agency’s supervision and guarantees and were safe in Syria.
Al-Shaibani described the closure of the non-compliance file as “the fruit of our joint work,” thanking Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Morocco, which he said sponsored and presented the draft resolution, in addition to the countries that supported the Syrian track, the agency’s secretariat, and the inspection teams working in the field.
He stressed that “transparency” represents for Syria “a solid sovereign approach and a permanent strategic decision,” noting that the new Syria is radically different from the previous regime that caused this legacy.
Al-Shaybani renewed Syria's call to free the Middle East of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, and to subject all nuclear facilities in the region, without exception, to the IAEA's comprehensive safeguards system, in accordance with the 1995 resolution.
Regarding the regional issue, Al-Shaibani accused Israel of continuing to violate Syrian sovereignty and targeting Syrian territory, considering this a violation of the 1974 Disengagement Agreement and international laws. He called for “effective and resolute” diplomatic and international pressure to stop what he described as systematic attacks.
He said that regional stability depends on obligating Israel to return to the 1974 agreement and completely withdraw to the lines before December 8, 2014, warning that turning a blind eye to these violations threatens international peace and security.
The minister indicated that the road map signed with the agency has entered into actual implementation, explaining that Syria's priorities in the peaceful use of nuclear energy include rehabilitating the nuclear medicine infrastructure, employing isotope techniques in evaluating and managing groundwater resources to confront the repercussions of drought, and raising the efficiency of radiological control of food and crops.
Al-Shaibani said that Syria seeks to employ nuclear energy in development, through nuclear medicine, scientific research, agriculture, water and electricity, summarizing that by saying that Syria wants from corn “what heals, what feeds, and what gives light.”
The Beirut Port explosion case has entered a decisive stage, with the Cassation Public Prosecutor, Judge Muhammad Saab, completing his initial review of the file, in preparation for handing it over, on Tuesday, to the Judicial Investigator, Judge Tariq Al-Bitar, who will then begin evaluating the demands of the Cassation Public Prosecution, and taking the measures that precede the issuance of the indictment.
A judicial source told Asharq Al-Awsat that Al-Bitar “will review the content of the review, and he may take the demands of the Public Prosecution, or go beyond them, according to what he deems appropriate to the facts and evidence reached by the investigation.” The source confirmed that “if the investigation includes allegations against new people, or it seeks to listen to other witnesses, the forensic investigator will have to schedule sessions to interrogate the defendants, or listen to the witnesses, according to the situation of each of them and the available data regarding him.”
The file is expected to witness a very important judicial stage, according to the same source’s assessment, “which is the summoning of all politicians, security leaders, military personnel, and judges whom Al-Bitar had previously interrogated, and at the time did not make final decisions regarding them.” He believes that these decisions “will vary depending on the situation of each person and the evidence available against him, between issuing arrest warrants in person, leaving him with a residence permit, or keeping him free.” He said: “After completing these procedures, Al-Bitar is preparing the indictment, which is likely to be issued before the end of this year.”
Al-Bitar interrogated former Prime Minister Hassan Diab, former Minister of Interior Nouhad Machnouk, former Director General of Public Security Major General Abbas Ibrahim, Director General of State Security Major General Tony Saliba, former Army Commander General Jean Kahwaji, and a number of senior officers, judges, and administrative employees as defendants, and left them under investigation, while he issued two pre-trial arrest warrants against the two former ministers, Ali Hassan Khalil and Youssef Fenianos, and he did not appear. In front of him is former Minister Ghazi Zuaiter.
Over the course of months, the Cassation Public Prosecutor, Muhammad Saab, studied the investigations conducted by Al-Bitar over the years, and examined all the evidence, documents, and judicial referrals in record time, and issued the review that represents the position of the Cassation Prosecution as a partner in this file, to end a long phase of disagreement that broke out between Al-Bitar and the Cassation Public Prosecution, before Judge Jamal Al-Hajjar was appointed to head it, and the latter launched the investigation again, and assigned Judge Saab the responsibility of preparing the review in the first place, before the Cassation Public Prosecutor renewed the investigation. The current judge, Ahmed Rami Al-Hajj, has confidence in Judge Saab, and asks him to continue studying the file, and to prepare the review in the first place.
The judicial source rejected what was said about the possibility of issuing the decision within a week or two, stressing that the judicial investigator “is not bound by a specific time limit to complete his mission.” But he pointed out that Al-Bitar is “determined to issue the decision before the end of the year, with 2027 marking the beginning of the trials phase before the Judicial Council.”
In addition, it is expected that the upcoming indictment will cause a widespread shock in political, judicial, and popular circles, given the information and facts it will contain about one of the major disasters that Lebanon has witnessed, and the responsibilities it will specify against political, security, military, judicial, and administrative figures. The source pointed out that the decision “will present, based on the facts and evidence, the path of importing ammonium nitrate from Georgia to Beirut in 2013, the circumstances of its unloading in the port, and the parties responsible for keeping and protecting it inside Ward No. 12 for seven years, up to its explosion on August 4, 2020.”
The decision is also expected to determine, in light of the results of the investigations and technical reports, the causes of the explosion, and whether it resulted from an error or negligence, a deliberate security action, or an Israeli air strike.
If the judicial path adopted by Judge Al-Bitar, specifically in the issue of prosecuting political, judicial and security officials, is the subject of controversy in judicial circles, it is expected that the matter will apply to the indictment, especially among the defendants. The judicial source confirmed that the judicial investigator “will determine in his decision the legal responsibilities of about 70 defendants, which vary between possible intent to kill, negligence, negligence, and breach of job duties.” It is also expected to prevent the prosecution of a number of defendants who did not have sufficient evidence to prosecute them.”
