Syria and the International Atomic Energy Agency have made their most significant progress on resolving nuclear safeguarding issues dating back to the Assad regime, Foreign Minister Asaad Al Shibani and IAEA director general Rafael Grossi said on Tuesday.
They were speaking at a press conference at Tishreen Palace in Damascus at the end of Mr Grossi’s two-day visit to Syria. The visit included a site in Deir Ezzor and a second location related to nuclear material identified by Syria recently. It was not made public.
Syria took the initiative to bring the issues to the IAEA's attention, Mr Shibani said, out of a desire for full transparency and to establish the country as a source of regional stability and security.
He added that, for the first time in almost 20 years, Syria had granted access to a secret nuclear site in the eastern region of Deir Ezzor and reaffirmed its sovereign and legal right to the civilian and peaceful use of nuclear energy, linked to energy, health and water management.
The Assad regime reportedly stored nuclear material intended for the Al Kibar nuclear reactor project at what was known as Site 99. The Al Kibar reactor was an unfinished nuclear research facility in Deir Ezzor. Israel bombed the complex in 2007, largely destroying the facility and disrupting Syria’s nuclear programme.
“We are addressing the ousted regime’s legacy regarding nuclear activities, while the new Syria looks forward to co-operating with the international community on peaceful nuclear activities,” Mr Shibani said.
The visits could help the IAEA resolve long-standing questions over Syria’s former nuclear programme and account for nuclear material linked to it.
Mr Grossi said the agency had started working with the current Syrian government a year and a half ago, and that the country had “regained its place in the international community as a state fully complying with all its legal obligations on nuclear non-proliferation … Unlike the former regime, which did not co-operate in this area”.
“The minister affirmed that the Syrian Arab Republic exercises sovereign responsibility over all nuclear material on its territory, that the material remains in Syrian national custody, and that Syria will continue to perform its responsibilities in accordance with its international obligations and its national interests,” the IAEA said in a statement.
The agency has been investigating Syria’s undeclared nuclear activities since 2008, after receiving information about the Deir Ezzor facility. In 2011, it concluded that the site was very likely a nuclear reactor and found Syria in non-compliance with its safeguards obligations.
