Syria’s Assad-era reactor configured for nuclear weapons: IAEA

What the report says

The International Atomic Energy Agency said Syria’s former Assad-era nuclear reactor at Deir Az Zor was configured in a way that could have produced fissile material for nuclear weapons. IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi made the comments in Vienna after agency inspectors, working with Syria’s new authorities, carried out verification visits in August and continued follow-up work last month.

According to the report cited by Al Jazeera, the UN watchdog said observations at the site supported the view that the uncovered cooling infrastructure matched that of a nuclear reactor. Grossi said inspectors had to navigate blocked and narrow areas to reach material that had been hidden, and he added that cameras were installed and the material is now under IAEA safeguards.

The reactor at Deir Az Zor was long suspected to be part of an undeclared Syrian nuclear program under former President Bashar al-Assad. The facility was destroyed in Israeli air strikes in 2007, and Syria later leveled the site without fully answering IAEA questions, according to the report. The agency has also said Syria had not properly declared some nuclear material, facilities and activities. The issue matters because it affects international monitoring of nuclear material in a country emerging from years of conflict and political transition, and because the IAEA says it will keep watching the site as excavation continues.