File image.
International inspectors have found several tons of nuclear material at an undeclared site in Syria dating to the era of ousted President Bashar al-Assad, the head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog announced on August 18.
Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said Syrian authorities reported the site to the agency last month. He praised the move as a “courageous decision.”
“We are talking about a few tons of nuclear material that could be put to bad use,” Grossi said.
Grossi spoke at a joint press conference with Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani, who said Damascus disclosed the material voluntarily.
“On July 17, we sent an official letter to the agency, in which we declared of our own free will the presence of nuclear materials at an undeclared site within the legacy left by the former regime,” Shaibani said.
The minister added that Syrian “technical assessments” found the material “does not pose a risk.” He noted that the material “will remain in Syrian national custody and subject to the agency’s safeguards system.” He also asserted Syria’s “sovereign and legal right” to pursue nuclear energy “for civilian and peaceful purposes.”
Grossi said the material “will be accounted for, will be put within the international safeguards system,” and that Syrian and IAEA experts would work together to store it safely.
“We are starting to turn a page, and turning a page does not mean forgetting the past,” Grossi said.
Grossi also traveled to a long-shuttered site in the eastern Syrian governorate of Deir Ezzor that the IAEA has long suspected once housed a secret nuclear reactor. Israel bombed the site in 2007, in a strike that became known as Operation Orchard. Israel did not acknowledge the attack until 2018. The strike is believed to have ended the Assad government’s efforts to build a nuclear weapon. The IAEA said last year that inspectors had discovered uranium particles at the site during a 2024 inspection.
“We were at the… site of Deir Ezzor, where a very comprehensive work of excavation and exploration is taking place now,” Grossi said. “This is very important because, of course, this validates the longstanding evaluation of the IAEA that a nuclear facility was being built in secrecy.”
Last week, Axios reported that the United States and the IAEA had reached an agreement to have the watchdog remove nuclear material stored at a clandestine site in Syria after having “reached understandings with Syria and Israel.”
Israel was closely monitoring a location called “Site 99,” where Israeli officials believe the Assad government stored nuclear material that was part of the Deir Ezzor project, also known as Al-Kibar, and that Israel threatened to bomb it, according to the American news website.
The officials told the website, however, that while the material is unusable for nuclear weapons, it could be utilized to create a “dirty bomb.” This goes against what was stated by Shaibani.
Israel has not yet commented on Syria’s decision to keep the nuclear material, but it is highly unlikely that it would just accept it.
Overnight, a series of Israeli strikes hit an air base in the northwest of Syria, reportedly to prevent Turkey from taking over it. The attack signaled Israel’s efforts to widen its red lines in the country. Based on this, it wouldn’t be surprising if Israel took action, possibly to seize the nuclear materials, once they are sorted out by the IAEA.
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