Syria opens its Assad-era nuclear program to the IAEA

Syrian authorities have officially invited the International Atomic Energy Agency to investigate the remnants of the nuclear program conducted under Bashar al-Assad. The IAEA has confirmed the discovery of several tons of nuclear material at a site in Damascus.

This is a move that the IAEA Director General, Rafael Grossi, described as a "courageous decision." The Syrian government declared on Tuesday, August 18, 2026, that it was fully cooperating with the UN agency after the latter discovered nuclear materials in the Syrian capital.

Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani clarified that Damascus had taken the initiative: “On July 17, we sent an official letter to the agency, in which we voluntarily declared the presence of nuclear materials at an undeclared site, part of the legacy left by the former regime.” He added that the discovered materials do not pose an immediate danger and will remain in Syrian custody, subject to international guarantees.

IAEA inspectors visited two sites: one in Deir ez-Zur, the other corresponding to the location recently reported by Syrian authorities. According to a joint statement, these are "a few tons of nuclear material that could be diverted for malicious purposes," in the words of Grossi, who promised that they would be placed under international safeguards.

Deir ez-Zur is not without its own history in this matter: Israel bombed a suspected nuclear reactor there in 2007. Syria is not known to possess operational stockpiles of materials intended for a weapons program, but the decades of Assad rule have left a nuclear legacy that the new authorities have been working to document since the regime's fall at the end of 2024.