UN atomic watchdog says tonnes of nuclear material found at Syria site

On Tuesday, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) announced that inspectors had uncovered “a few tonnes of nuclear material that could be put to bad use” at a previously undisclosed location in Syria. The revelation follows a formal notification from Damascus that it had alerted the agency to the hidden stockpile on 17 July 2026.

At a joint press conference in Damascus, IAEA Director‑General Rafael Mariano Grossi praised the Syrian authorities for what he called a “courageous decision”. He explained that the agency’s team had visited two separate sites – the long‑known Deir Ezzor location and “a second location related to the nuclear material identified by Syria recently”, as stated in the joint agency‑Syria statement.

Media additions

“We are talking about a few tonnes of nuclear material that could be put to bad use,”

Rafael Grossi, IAEA Director‑General, via Nzherald

Grossi added that the material “will be accounted for, will be put within the international safeguards system”.1

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al‑Shaibani confirmed the July 17 letter and reiterated that, based on technical assessments, the material “does not pose any danger”. He said it would stay in Syrian national custody while being subject to the agency’s safeguard system.

“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,”

Asaad al‑Shaibani, Syrian Foreign Minister, via Yahoo

He also affirmed, “It will remain in Syria’s custody and subject to the agency’s safeguards system.”

The Deir Ezzor site, situated in Syria’s oil‑rich east, has been the focus of international attention for over a decade. In 2007, Israel carried out a covert airstrike that destroyed the facility, a fact Israel publicly admitted in 2018. The reactor, known locally as Al‑Kibar, was originally built with North Korean assistance, a link the IAEA highlighted in its 2011 declaration that the installation was “very likely” to have been a nuclear reactor.

U.S. Officials first accused Syria of pursuing a secret nuclear program in 2008, noting Israel’s 2007 operation. In 2024, IAEA inspectors discovered uranium particles at the Deir Ezzor location.

French think‑tank scholar Pierre Razoux, academic director of the FMES Institute, told AFP that the newly found material is “most likely … linked to the Syrian nuclear programme, which was halted in 2007 after the Israeli raid on the Al‑Kibar site”. He said, however, that Syria may also have nuclear materials that Iraq rid itself of at the start of the 2000s.1

The IAEA’s discovery aligns with reports from the news outlet Axios, which last week quoted U.S. And Israeli officials saying Washington and the agency had reached an agreement to remove nuclear material stored at a clandestine Syrian site after “reaching understandings with Syria and Israel”. Axios also named a location called “Site 99” that Israeli officials monitor as a possible storage point for material linked to the Deir Ezzor project.

Meanwhile, the broader regional picture remains volatile. State‑run Syrian television reported eight strikes on the Abu al‑Duhur air base in Idlib on the same day as Grossi’s briefing, accusing Israel of “unjustified aggression”. The United States, through Tom Barrack – the U.S. Ambassador to Turkey and special envoy to Syria – expressed “deep concern” that the Israeli air strikes “do not advance regional stability”.2

Both the NZ Herald and Yahoo accounts note that the IAEA team “completed their site visit this morning and collected the necessary samples”.

“This material will be accounted for, will be put within the international safeguards system.”

Rafael Grossi, via Newsday

In addition to the technical work, political messaging has been prominent. Grossi said, “We are starting to turn a page, and turning a page does not mean forgetting the past.”

Under the interim presidency of Ahmad al‑Sharaa, Syria has pledged full cooperation with the IAEA and expressed an intention to develop a peaceful nuclear energy sector.