Almost no one is on the record in this London Times story, but it is a heck of a story nonetheless, all about Israel bombing some sort of nuclear facility in Syria that is connected to both Iran and North Korea:

It was just after midnight when the 69th Squadron of Israeli F15Is crossed the Syrian coast-line. On the ground, Syria’s formidable air defences went dead. An audacious raid on a Syrian target 50 miles from the Iraqi border was under way. At a rendezvous point on the ground, a Shaldag air force commando team was waiting to direct their laser beams at the target for the approaching jets. The team had arrived a day earlier, taking up position near a large underground depot. Soon the bunkers were in flames.

Ten days after the jets reached home, their mission was the focus of intense speculation this weekend amid claims that Israel believed it had destroyed a cache of nuclear materials from North Korea.

The Israeli government was not saying. “The security sources and IDF [Israeli Defence Forces] soldiers are demonstrating unusual courage,” said Ehud Olmert, the prime minister. “We naturally cannot always show the public our cards.” The Syrians were also keeping mum. “I cannot reveal the details,” said Farouk al-Sharaa, the vice-president. “All I can say is the military and political echelon is looking into a series of responses as we speak. Results are forthcoming.” The official story that the target comprised weapons destined for Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese Shi’ite group, appeared to be crumbling in the face of widespread scepticism.

Andrew Semmel, a senior US State Department official, said Syria might have obtained nuclear equipment from “secret suppliers”, and added that there were a “number of foreign technicians” in the country. Asked if they could be North Korean, he replied: “There are North Korean people there. There’s no question about that.” He said a network run by AQ Khan, the disgraced creator of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, could be involved. But why would nuclear material be in Syria? Known to have chemical weapons, was it seeking to bolster its arsenal with something even more deadly?

Alternatively, could it be hiding equipment for North Korea, enabling Kim Jong-il to pretend to be giving up his nuclear programme in exchange for economic aid? Or was the material bound for Iran, as some authorities in America suggest?…

“This was supposed to be a devastating Syrian surprise for Israel,” said an Israeli source. “We’ve known for a long time that Syria has deadly chemical warheads on its Scuds, but Israel can’t live with a nuclear warhead.”

An expert on the Middle East, who has spoken to Israeli participants in the raid, told yesterday’s Washington Post that the timing of the raid on September 6 appeared to be linked to the arrival three days earlier of a ship carrying North Korean material labelled as cement but suspected of concealing nuclear equipment. The target was identified as a northern Syrian facility that purported to be an agricultural research centre on the Euphrates river. Israel had been monitoring it for some time, concerned that it was being used to extract uranium from phosphates.

Meanwhile, the US now has three carrier strike groups in or headed for the Persian Gulf, and the French foreign minister is saying to prepare for war. AFP: The world should brace for a possible war over the Iranian nuclear crisis but seeking a solution through talks should take priority, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Sunday. “We have to prepare for the worst, and the worst is war”… Stay tuned.

UPDATE

Perhaps related, or perhaps not. AP:

International talks on North Korea’s nuclear program to firm up a deadline for the country to disable any nuclear bomb-producing facilities have been postponed, officials said Monday…No reason for the delay was given…

The North shut down its sole operating nuclear reactor in July, and had been displaying willingness to take further steps in exchange for political and economic concessions…Last week, nuclear experts from the U.S., China and Russia visited the North’s nuclear facilities to discuss technical details of disabling them…Disabling the facilities would mean they cannot be easily restarted to produce more plutonium that can be used in bombs. On Friday, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said in Washington that the talks were expected to begin in the middle of this week.

A Japanese Foreign Ministry official said Monday that host China had informed Japan on Monday that the talks would be postponed. China gave no reason for the postponement and gave no new date for the start of talks, the official said on condition of anonymity due to policy. Another South Korean Foreign Ministry official, also speaking on condition of anonymity due to policy, confirmed the talks wouldn’t begin Wednesday as had been previously expected.

Allison Kaplan Sommer says at Pajamas Media that, among Israeli journalists, a lot more is known about this entire story than is being written. Is NK shutting down its reactors a feint? Just what are North Koreans doing in Syria anyhow?

This entry was posted on Monday, September 17th, 2007 at 6:21 am and is filed under China, General, Iran, Religion, War. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.