Inspectors start digging at the Deir el-Zour site
Rafael Mariano Grossi told a news conference in Damascus that his teams were inside the Deir el-Zour site, where comprehensive excavation and exploration work is under way, and that a second site holding nuclear material had also been found. He gave no details of that second site. Grossi said a few tonnes of material that could be put to bad use would be accounted for and placed within the international safeguards system, and he called Syria's cooperation a matter of enormous importance. Under Bashar Assad, Syria was believed to run an extensive undeclared nuclear programme that included a reactor built by North Korea in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour. Assad's government let inspectors visit some sites; the interim administration under Ahmad al-Sharaa has promised full cooperation and opened suspected sites to them. Syria's top diplomat said Damascus still wants a peaceful nuclear programme and intends to keep any material in its custody under international safeguards.[1]