IAEA confirms Deir ez-Zor cooling works match a reactor built under Assad
The IAEA, in a confidential report circulated to member states, said former Syrian authorities under Bashar al-Assad failed to report nuclear material, facilities and activities required under the NPT safeguards agreement. Inspectors who visited in August found a reactor under construction at Deir ez-Zor, a fuel fabrication plant and a fuel-storage site, and confirmed that uncovered cooling infrastructure is consistent with a nuclear reactor. The new Syrian authorities have given inspectors access to sites left unexplained after the 2007 strikes.
Geopolitics··Morning
The IAEA established that Syrian authorities under Assad failed to report NPT work
The IAEA, in a confidential report circulated to member states and seen by news agencies, said it is able to establish that former Syrian authorities under ousted president Bashar al-Assad failed to report nuclear material, facilities and activities required under the NPT safeguards agreement. The agency said it visited several sites in Syria in August and carried out verification work. The findings concern an undeclared nuclear programme believed to have been run under al-Assad.[1], [2]
IAEA inspectors found reactor construction and matching cooling works at Deir ez-Zor
Inspectors who visited several sites in August found a reactor under construction at Deir el-Zour, also named Deir ez-Zor in the reporting, a fuel fabrication plant and another site used for fuel storage. Based on its observations at Deir ez-Zor, the IAEA confirmed that the cooling infrastructure now uncovered there is consistent with that of a nuclear reactor built under Bashar al-Assad. The agency said it will keep monitoring the site as excavation progresses.[1], [2]
The post-Assad government granted access to the site levelled after the 2007 strikes
Under Assad, Syria was believed to have operated an extensive undeclared nuclear programme that included a reactor built by North Korea in eastern Deir ez-Zor province. The Deir el-Zour site became public knowledge only after Israeli airstrikes destroyed the facility in 2007; Syria later levelled the ground and never answered the agency's questions in full. After his ouster the new government agreed to give agency inspectors access to suspected former nuclear sites. Israel is believed to have its own undeclared atomic weapons programme, which makes it the only country in the Middle East with nuclear bombs.[1], [2]
