Syria's Atomic Energy Committee confirmed Tuesday reports of an agreement to remove nuclear material from its territory through the International Atomic Energy Agency. The committee stated it is cooperating transparently with the IAEA, the United States, and other countries to address the legacy of the previous regime. An IAEA delegation is expected to arrive in Syria in the coming days and announce 'significant progress,' according to Damascus.
The Syrian Atomic Energy Committee on Tuesday morning confirmed an agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency and the United States to remove nuclear material from Syrian territory, stating that an IAEA delegation will arrive in the coming days to coordinate the extraction. The announcement came hours after a report that Israel had threatened to strike a secret Syrian nuclear site, prompting Washington to broker a removal deal—an account that Syrian authorities had not directly addressed in earlier statements.
The confirmation marks the latest development in a fast-moving story that The Zioneer first reported Tuesday at 06:59 Jerusalem, when Axios revealed, citing US and Israeli officials, that the US, Israel and Syria had reached a secret understanding for the IAEA to extract nuclear material from a clandestine site known as 'Site 99'—remnants of the Al-Kibar reactor destroyed by Israel in 2007. Shortly afterward, at the same publication time, The Zioneer published Syria's official confirmation of the agreement, and then a follow-up report detailing that Israel had threatened to strike the site, leading to the US-IAEA brokered deal. Earlier Tuesday at 02:52 Jerusalem, Syria had issued a general statement of continued transparent cooperation with the IAEA and the US following an N12 report on the secret site.
The operation involves yellowcake uranium and other nuclear remnants from the Al-Kibar reactor, which Israel destroyed in 2007 to prevent a Syrian nuclear weapons program. The IAEA has been central to the verification mechanism. The current development represents a rare instance of cooperation between Israel and the post-Assad Syrian government, mediated by Washington, to secure sensitive nuclear material.
The exact type and quantity of nuclear material at the site have not been disclosed, and the Syrian committee did not specify the location of the secret site beyond referencing the legacy of the previous regime. The timeline for the IAEA delegation's arrival and the extraction itself remains unconfirmed.
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