Syria’s government confirmed that it had cooperated with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United States and countries it described as friendly over a sensitive nuclear location, following a report that an agreement had been reached to remove material from the site.
The arrangement involved Washington, Damascus and Israel and concerned a location identified as Site 99, according to a Jerusalem Post account of the original Axios reporting. The reported goal was to secure and remove nuclear material while avoiding a potential confrontation involving Israel, Syria and Turkey.
The diplomacy followed months of threats and messages among the parties, with a resolution reportedly achieved several weeks before it became public. The effort had been closely held, and Syrian officials had denied knowing that nuclear material was present at the site, according to sources cited in the account.
Site 99 was said by US officials to contain residue linked to the al-Kibar reactor. The former government of Bashar al-Assad had developed a secret nuclear programme around that reactor, described as a plutonium-production facility built with North Korean assistance in Syria’s Deir Ezzor region. After Assad’s fall, the IAEA reached an agreement with the new Syrian authorities allowing visits to the reactor and other nuclear locations.
Israel had monitored Syrian nuclear facilities and discussed Site 99 with the United States for more than a year, the report said. An Israeli official said Israel would not accept nuclear material remaining there. Israel had threatened another strike if the material was not removed or if Syria appeared to be trying to gain access to it.
US and Israeli officials ultimately concluded that cooperation from the Syrian government was the preferred way to deal with the material. A US official quoted in the report characterised the new Syrian government as a good partner in the emerging relationship and said knowledge of the discussions had been restricted to very few people in the three countries.
The Syrian confirmation established that cooperation had occurred, but the supplied evidence did not identify the type or quantity of material involved. It also did not provide a removal date, describe the technical procedure, or state where the material would be taken.
Those unanswered questions leave the operational status of the plan unclear. The reported agreement nonetheless represents an effort to address a nuclear-security concern through coordination among governments whose competing interests had created the risk of military escalation. The IAEA’s role placed the international nuclear watchdog at the centre of the proposed effort to secure the site.
