UN report confirms Syria was building nuclear reactor during Assad rule

Inspectors with the UN nuclear watchdog visited several sites in Syria in August and carried out verification work, according to a confidential report circulated to member states and seen Tuesday by Associated Press.

Based on this visit, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported that it is “able to establish that the former Syrian authorities had failed to report nuclear material, facilities and activities as required under the NPT Safeguards Agreement”.

This information included a nuclear reactor under construction in Deir el-Zour, a fuel fabrication plant and another site used for fuel storage during the rule of former president Bashar al-Assad.

Under Assad, Syria was believed to have operated an extensive undeclared nuclear programme that included a nuclear reactor built by North Korea in eastern Deir el-Zour province.

The site in Deir el-Zour became public knowledge only after Israel launched air strikes in 2007 that destroyed the facility. Syria later levelled the site and never responded fully to the IAEA’s questions about it.

The IAEA took samples at the site in 2024 and reported last year that they contained uranium particles.