UN nuclear watchdog head Rafael Mariano Grossi said Tuesday that his agency had found several "tons of nuclear materials" at a previously undeclared site dating from the rule of Syria's previous authorities. Syria's Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani said the material was not dangerous and that Damascus had the right to keep and use it for peaceful purposes.
The head of the UN's nuclear watchdog said its inspectors had found several tons of nuclear material in Syria, at a site which the authorities said they reported to the agency last month.
Rafael Mariano Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), praised Damascus's "courageous decision" to report the undisclosed site, which dates to the Assad era, and said the material would be put under "international safeguards".
"We are talking about a few tons of nuclear material that could be put to bad use," he said.
Speaking at a joint press conference with Grossi, Syria's Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani said: "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."
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Shaibani said that "technical assessments" indicate that "these materials do not pose a risk", adding that they "will remain in Syrian national custody and subject to the agency's safeguards system".
Grossi, meanwhile said "this material will be accounted for, will be put within the international safeguards system".
Syrian and IAEA experts will work together to safely store the materials, he said.
"We are starting to turn a page, and turning a page does not mean forgetting the past."
Grossi also visited a site in Deir Ezzor in the east, which has been shut for 18 years and which the IAEA had suspected contained a nuclear reactor.
In 2018, Israel admitted carrying out a top-secret air raid against the site 11 years earlier.
"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," he added.
The watchdog said last year that it discovered uranium particles at the site during an inspection in 2024.
Grossi's visit came after news outlet Axios last week quoted US and Israeli officials as saying Washington and the IAEA 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".
Axios said Israel was closely monitoring a location called "Site 99", where Israeli officials say 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.
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Since the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad in late 2024, Syria's new authorities have committed to working with the United Nations' nuclear watchdog to address the legacy of nuclear activities during decades of Assad family rule.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, Reuters)
