IAEA chief: several tonnes of undeclared nuclear material found in Syria

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, said on Tuesday that agency inspectors found several tonnes of nuclear material in Syria at a site that had not previously been declared. Speaking at a press conference in Damascus, Grossi said the material could potentially be diverted for other purposes, and that access to it became possible after Syria's own decision to inform the agency of the site's existence.

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani confirmed that the authorities voluntarily informed the IAEA about the presence of the nuclear material. According to al-Shaibani, technical assessments indicate the discovered material poses no direct threat. He added that the material remains under Syrian state control and will be placed under the agency's safeguards system. Grossi confirmed that the material will be accounted for and brought under the international safeguards regime, adding that Syrian and IAEA experts will now cooperate to ensure it is stored safely.

Visit to Deir ez-Zor

Grossi also visited a site in Deir ez-Zor in eastern Syria that had been closed off for 18 years and which the IAEA had long suspected of housing a covert nuclear reactor. In 2018, Israel acknowledged carrying out a top-secret airstrike on the site 11 years earlier. Grossi said very thorough excavation and research work is currently underway there, which he said confirms the agency's longstanding assessment that a nuclear facility had been secretly built at the location. Last year the agency reported that a 2024 inspection had found uranium particles at the site.

Grossi's trip followed a report by Axios, which, citing US and Israeli officials, said Washington and the IAEA had reached an understanding to remove secret nuclear materials from Syria following coordination with Damascus and Tel Aviv.