IAEA Finds Nuclear Material at Syrian Site
The material will remain under IAEA safeguards as Syria’s post-Assad government cooperates with inspectors and seeks peaceful nuclear energy.
Thursday, 20 August 2026 13:36
The International Atomic Energy Agency said Tuesday it found several tons of nuclear material at a previously undeclared site in Syria dating to the Assad era, SOFX reported.
IAEA Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi did not disclose the type of material or the site’s location. He said Syria reported the site to the agency in July, adding: “We are talking about a few tons of nuclear material that could be put to bad use.”
Grossi said the material “will be accounted for” and “will be put within the international safeguard system.” Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani said, “Syria confirms, based on technical evaluations, that this material does not pose any danger,” and that “It will remain in Syria’s custody and will remain subject to the agency’s safeguard system.”
Under former President Bashar Assad, Syria was believed to have operated a clandestine nuclear program, including a reactor built with North Korean assistance in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor. After Assad was ousted in 2024, President Ahmad al-Sharaa’s administration pledged greater cooperation with the IAEA and granted inspectors access to suspected nuclear facilities.
Grossi said he also visited the Deir Ezzor site, which had been closed for 18 years and was long suspected by the IAEA of housing a nuclear reactor. Israel bombed the site in 2007 and acknowledged the operation in 2018. “We were at the… site of Deir Ezzor, where a very comprehensive work of excavation and exploration is taking place now,” Grossi said.
Grossi said the work “validates the longstanding evaluation of the IAEA that a nuclear facility was being built in secrecy.” His visit followed an Axios report that the IAEA would remove nuclear material stored at a clandestine Syrian site after the Trump administration “reached understandings with Syria and Israel,” but the White House and IAEA did not confirm that report.
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