Senior US officials believe that Syria was a possible client of disgraced Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, a media report said. ‘‘There is growing concern among senior US State Department officials that Damascus has been pursuing a clandestine nuclear weapons development programme, and may already have procured centrifuges from Pakistan that can purify uranium for use in bombs,’’ Ma’ariv Online reported.However, intelligence reports are said to be somewhat ambiguous, and the US intelligence community remains divided on the issue, it added.US Undersecretary of State for Arms Control John Bolton had recently said that Khan had several ‘‘other customers’’ besides Iran, Libya and North Korea. ‘‘Syria certainly had contact with Khan,’’ a non-US Western diplomat is quoted to have said, adding suspicions of Syrian research in atomic weapons has existed for decades.
