IAEA Finds Tons of Nuclear Material in Syria
IAEA Finds Tons of Nuclear Material in Syria
The News
UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi said Tuesday that inspectors found several "tons of nuclear materials" at a previously undeclared Syrian site dating to the rule of the country's former authorities.
Syria's foreign minister, Asaad al-Shaibani, said the material is not dangerous and will stay in Syrian custody, arguing Damascus has the right to keep and use it for peaceful purposes.
The International Atomic Energy Agency says the material will be placed under agency safeguards.
Timeline
Israel bombed a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor in the country's eastern province, at Deir al-Zor.
IAEA inspectors visited several undeclared Assad-era Syrian nuclear sites for the first time, including sites used to store nuclear material, Axios reported. The visits followed diplomatic efforts by the Trump administration.
Grossi announced the discovery of several tons of nuclear material at the undeclared site and said he had toured the site Israel bombed in 2007. He said he is increasingly convinced that site was a nuclear facility.
Grossi met al-Shaibani in Damascus, with both sides describing cooperation as being at an advanced stage.
Reactions
Grossi said the find amounts to a "few tons" of nuclear material and that it will be brought under IAEA safeguards.
Al-Shaibani said the material poses no danger, that it will remain under Damascus's control, and that Syria invited the IAEA in on its own initiative. He said Syria claims the right to use the material for civil and peaceful purposes, and that Damascus has committed to safe storage and handling.
The Telegraph reported the material was described as something "that could be put to bad use."
The Jerusalem Post noted that Syria is not known to hold operational stockpiles of nuclear material for a weapons program.
What's Next
The material stays in Syria, under Syrian custody but subject to IAEA oversight, with Damascus responsible for storage conditions.
Open questions the IAEA has not yet answered publicly: the exact nature and quantity of what was found, the specific guarantees that will govern Syrian custody, and whether further inspections turn up more nuclear activity from the Assad era.
More
This is the first known IAEA access to these sites under Syria's post-Assad government, which opens decades of Assad-era nuclear activity to outside scrutiny for the first time. The American angle is direct: Axios reported the inspections happened after diplomatic pressure from the Trump administration, making the outcome a test of Washington's leverage in post-Assad Damascus.
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