September 14, 2007 (LPAC)--Andrew Semmel, acting U.S. deputy assistant secretary for nuclear nonproliferation said in Rome that Syria was on the U.S. nuclear "watch list," and asserted that foreign technicians were in the country, and argued sophistically that the U.S. knows that there may have been contacts with suppliers for nuclear equipment. Semmel is in Italy for a meeting Saturday on the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, and was questioned by reporters about an Israeli airstrike in northern Syria last week.

Semmel said, according to Associated Press, that "there are indicators that they do have something going on there" in Syria. "We do know that there are a number of foreign technicians that have been in Syria. We do know that there may have been contact between Syria and some secret suppliers for nuclear equipment. Whether anything transpired remain to be seen," he said. "There are North Korean people there. There's no question about that. Just as there are a lot of North Koreans in Iraq and Iran," he explained. "We're watching very closely. Obviously, the Israelis were watching very closely," he added.