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Syria's Assad building nuclear weapons factory



TomandJerry

Well-known member
Oct 1, 2013
11,345
Syria's president Bashar Assad wants to have a nuclear bomb and has begun work on an underground plant in order to achieve his goal, German news magazine Der Spiegel Online reported on Friday.

Intelligence sources provided exclusive documents, satellite photographs and intercepted conversations to Der Spiegel that indicate that the plant is located near the city of Homs and is a built deep underground in an inaccessible mountain region only two kilometers from the Lebanese border.

Hezbollah, the Shi'te Lebanese militant group aligned with the Syrian President in the Civil War that has been raging in his country for almost four years, will be securing the facility. Iranian and North Korean experts are also reportedly involved in the project
Western experts who evaluated the documents provided to Der Spiegel said they suspect that a reactor or an enrichment plant could be the aim of the project, whose codename is "Zamzam."

Assad has reportedly transferred 8,000 fuel rods to the facility that were originally planned for the Al Kibar nuclear reactor.

In September 2007, Israel bombed the Al Kibar site Assad was building covertly along the Euphrates River. Israel has never acknowledged the attack
 

spence

British and Proud
Oct 15, 2014
9,809
Crawley
I simply don't trust the Wests intelligence after the Iraq fiasco
 

vegster

Sanity Clause
May 5, 2008
27,853
Unlikely
 

GreersElbow

New member
Jan 5, 2012
4,870
A Northern Outpost
There's one big glaringly obvious problem with this.


Syria is in the middle of a civil war, Assad's resources are probably well and truly stretched and allocated to protecting his regime.

Secondly, we've been saying this about every chance country in an attempt to invade them, it's now a simple checklist for foreign intelligence gathering. If they don't have it, use "potentially". I'd rather we went in on humanitarian grounds, secured a large section of land and tell civilians to go there and any ****er with a gun gets shot and leave everyone else to fight it out.

Nonetheless, western foreign policy has became so predictable now...
 


GreersElbow

New member
Jan 5, 2012
4,870
A Northern Outpost
"the documents"

There is absolutely no way Assad has the resources to do this. This is blatant (presumably Israeli) propaganda.

Disagree this is Israeli, purely because Assad being in power is helpful for their stability. Imagine a much more radical Syrian government, not Israel's nicest thought. Assad wasn't pro-Israeli, but he helped keep peace. I think this is just U.S, garnering support to get involved as they failed to gather support among the UN and its allies to go in 2 years ago on humanitarian intervention. This is what they did pre-2003 Iraq invasion and it stinks of similarities.

What I find more interesting though, is why Der Speigel? It's fairly odd to use a German newspaper as German foreign policy is fairly passive. Unless that's exactly why, makes it seem more 'believable'.
 

ATFC Seagull

Aberystwyth Town FC
Jul 27, 2004
5,306
(North) Portslade
Can't really see this for a few reasons.

1. As said, I was under the impression that building a nuclear bomb from scratch was difficult at the best of times, let alone when your country is divided, infrastructure destroyed and military resources all being used to fight a civil war.

2. Can't see why Iran, given the shit they've been through to try and get their own nuclear weapons (not yet successfully) would want to help what is fundamentally a long-term enemy gain them. They have a short-term mutual enemy in IS, but that hardly requires TWO nuclear-armed states to deal with (in fact nuclear weapons are probably basically useless).

3. If North Korea did have the capability to help, what's in it for them apart from general mischief? Unless you believe in some kind of dictators union.

4. Asad must surely realise that he is slowly becoming the "best of a bad bunch" to the extent they the West may ultimately tolerate his regime, which is probably his only way out of he current situation he finds himself in.
 

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