The United States has brokered an agreement under which the International Atomic Energy Agency will remove nuclear material from a clandestine site in Syria, averting a potential confrontation involving Syria, Israel and possibly Türkiye, Axios reported.
According to the report, the agreement followed months of discreet negotiations among Washington, Damascus, Israel and the IAEA over a facility known as “Site 99”, where remnants of Syria’s former nuclear programme had reportedly been stored.
U.S. and Israeli officials told Axios that the site contained material connected to the Al-Kibar nuclear reactor project developed under former president Bashar al-Assad. Israel destroyed the Al-Kibar reactor in an air strike in 2007, dealing a major blow to Syria’s clandestine nuclear programme, although several research and storage facilities survived.
Among the material reportedly stored at Site 99 was yellowcake, a processed uranium ore that can be further refined and, after additional stages, enriched for use in a nuclear fuel cycle. Other residues from the Al-Kibar project were also kept at the facility, according to a U.S. official cited by Axios.
The material was not considered suitable for use in a nuclear weapon in its existing form, but officials were concerned that radioactive material from the site could potentially be used in a so-called dirty bomb, which combines conventional explosives with radioactive substances.
Israeli officials said the Israeli military bombed the entrances to Site 99 shortly after the fall of the Assad government in an effort to prevent anyone from gaining access to the facility.
For more than a year, U.S. and Israeli officials had discussed how to secure the site. Israel warned Washington that it would not accept the continued presence of nuclear material there and raised the possibility of further military action if the material was not removed or if Syrian authorities attempted to reach it.
A U.S. official, however, told Axios that Israel was never on the verge of carrying out another strike.
Washington and Israel eventually concluded that the preferable course was to secure the cooperation of Syria’s new government and arrange for the material to be removed under international supervision.
When U.S. officials first raised the issue with Damascus, Syrian officials reportedly said they had been unaware that nuclear material remained at the facility.
The matter was handled by a small circle of officials in the United States, Israel and Syria. One U.S. official described cooperation with the post-Assad authorities as productive, saying that Syrian officials had proved to be “good partners” when working with Washington on sensitive issues.
The arrangement was briefly thrown into doubt several weeks ago when Israeli surveillance detected activity around Site 99. Israeli officials suspected that the Syrian government might be attempting to gain access to the stored material and were also concerned that Türkiye could be assisting Damascus.
The Trump administration urged Israel not to act militarily and brought the IAEA more directly into the negotiations.
According to Axios, the diplomatic intervention resulted in an agreement signed approximately three weeks ago between the Syrian government and the IAEA authorising the agency to remove the nuclear material.
The agreement builds on earlier cooperation between Damascus and the IAEA following the collapse of the Assad government. The new Syrian authorities had already granted inspectors access to Al-Kibar and several other locations associated with the country’s former nuclear activities.
Charles Lister, a resident fellow at the Middle East Institute, told Axios that the Syrian government was eager to resolve sensitive files inherited from the former regime, including nuclear and chemical weapons issues, as part of its broader effort to restore Syria’s international standing.
The removal operation has not yet begun, and the material remains at Site 99. U.S. officials said preparations were continuing and expressed hope that the process could begin soon and be completed before the end of the year.
The White House, the IAEA and the Israeli prime minister’s office declined Axios’s requests for comment.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
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