Mohamed el-Baradei, the head of the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency, said Thursday that the IAEA's investigation into Syria's alleged secret nuclear program faced difficulties when a senior member of government who had helped the investigation was killed.
El-Baradei did not give names, but analysts suspect he was referring to Mohammed Suleiman. Suleiman, a senior aide to Syrian President Bashar Assad, was assassinated on August 1 of this year.
El-Baradei gave a brief report earlier this week on the IAEA's investigation into a Syrian site that was allegedly used to house a nuclear reactor before it was bombed by Israel. He said his team has not yet found evidence of nuclear activity at the site.