Syrian President Bashar Assad has emphatically denied American intelligence information presented to Congressional leaders last week, who were shown a photograph of North Korean experts working on the nuclear power facility that was said to have been destroyed by Israel last September. Assad said the site contained a military facility under construction.

He told a Qatari newspaper, "Is it logical? A nuclear site did not have protection with surface to air defenses? A nuclear site within the footprint of satellites in the middle of Syria in an open area in the desert? We are against mass destruction weapons for Israel, Iran or others. Where would we use [a nuclear bomb]? On Israel it would kill the Palestinians. I do not see this as logical."