IAEA chief Rafael Grossi visited two sites in Syria (AFP photo)
The head of the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog said on Aug. 18 its inspectors had found several tons of nuclear material in Syria, at a site Damascus reported to the agency last month.
The inspectors visited two sites, one in Deir Ezzor and “a second location related to the nuclear material identified by Syria recently,” according to a joint statement.
Speaking at a news conference in Damascus, Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), praised Damascus’ “courageous decision” to report the undisclosed site, which dates back to the rule of ousted former leader Bashar-al-Assad.
“We are talking about a few tons of nuclear material that could be put to bad use,” he said, promising that it would be put under international safeguards.
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.”
Shaibani said technical assessments indicated that the 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.
In 2018, Israel admitted carrying out a top-secret air raid against the site 11 years earlier.
