A former al-Qaida terrorist is now sitting on a treasure trove of nuclear material that can be weaponized.
A United Nations team has excavated a ‘previously undisclosed site’ in Syria and found several tons of nuclear material from the days of the Bashar al-Assad rule.
The agreed plan was for the International Atomic Energy Agency to remove the material from Syria – but that’s not what’s going to happen, anymore.
Syria is now holding the nuclear material, and refuses the handover, saying ‘it will remain under IAEA safeguards for peaceful civilian use’.
U.N. atomic agency finds “a few tons” of nuclear material at secret Syrian site https://t.co/YW527vxJIj
— Giovanni Staunovo🛢 (@staunovo) August 18, 2026
Syria admits holding nuclear material, refuses handover: ‘We have the right to use it’
Damascus reverses an earlier plan to remove the material from Syria, saying it will remain under IAEA safeguards for peaceful civilian use; the …https://t.co/uuqXuhrHqu pic.twitter.com/m7EMeo10z5
— Ynet Global (@ynetnews) August 18, 2026
The Telegraph reported:
“Rafael Grossi, the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said on Tuesday that ‘tons of nuclear materials that could be put to bad use’ had been found at the site, dating from the time of Syria’s authoritarian Assad government.
‘After your courageous decision to inform us that there was another place, another site where nuclear material had been stored, we were able to access this place’, Mr. Grossi said during a press conference with Asaad al-Shaibani, Syria’s foreign minister, in Damascus. ‘We are talking about a few tons of nuclear material that could be put to bad use’.
The IAEA had previously said it was preparing to remove the nuclear material, left over from the era of dictator Bashar al-Assad, who was overthrown by a coalition of rebels in 2024. They now form the Syrian government.
However, Mr. Shaibani said the nuclear material was not dangerous and would remain in Syrian custody, subject to IAEA guarantees, adding that Syria had the right to use it for civil and peaceful purposes.”
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Shaibani confirms that nuclear material exists in a site in Deir ez Zor and says it will remain on Syrian territory under IAEA supervision.
“Syria affirms its sovereign and legal right to possess a peaceful civilian nuclear program and benefit from… pic.twitter.com/bYIxoIWsLx
— Ariel Oseran أريئل أوسيران (@ariel_oseran) August 18, 2026
Associated Press reported:
“Under former President Bashar Assad, Syria was believed to have operated an extensive undeclared nuclear program that included a nuclear reactor built by North Korea in eastern Deir el-Zour province.
Syria under Assad allowed IAEA inspectors to visit some sites, but the country under interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa has pledged full cooperation with the UN watchdog and given its inspectors access to suspected nuclear sites.
‘Myself and my team, we were inside the site of Deir el-Zour, where very comprehensive work of excavation and exploration is taking place now’, the International Atomic Energy Agency’s director-general Rafael Mariano Grossi said at a news conference in Damascus.”
Read more:
NOW: Syria Sentences Ousted Dictator Bashar Assad To Death ‘in Absentia’ for War Crimes
Ad block users: Some site features may not work correctly while an ad blocker is enabled, because they break scripts and content this website depends on. If you can’t see comments below, for example, please disable your ad blocker.
