Several tons of nuclear material has been discovered at a previously undisclosed site in Syria, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog has said.
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.
“On July 17, we sent an official letter to the agency, in which we declared of our own free will the presence of nuclear materials at an undeclared site within the legacy left by the former regime,” Mr Shaibani said at the joint press conference.
Mr Grossi “and the agency team completed their site visit this morning and collected the necessary samples”, he added.
Asaad al-Shaibani said the nuclear material was not dangerous – Mohamed al Rifai/EPA/Shutterstock
Mr Grossi, meanwhile, said: “This material will be accounted for, will be put within the international safeguards system.”
Syrian and IAEA experts would work together to safely store the materials, he said, adding: “We are starting to turn a page, and turning a page does not mean forgetting the past.”
Mr Grossi also visited a site in Deir Ezzor, in the east, which has been shut for 18 years and which the IAEA had suspected contained a nuclear reactor.
In 2018, Israel admitted carrying out a top-secret air raid against the site 11 years earlier.
The watchdog said last year that it discovered uranium particles at the site during an inspection in 2024.
Mr Grossi’s visit came after the news outlet Axios last week quoted US and Israeli officials as saying Washington and the IAEA reached an agreement to have the watchdog remove nuclear material stored at a clandestine site in Syria after having “reached understandings with Syria and Israel”.
Axios said Israel was closely monitoring a location called Site 99, where Israeli officials said the Assad government stored nuclear material that was part of the Deir Ezzor project, also known as al-Kibar, and that Israel threatened to bomb it.
The country is not known to hold operational stockpiles of nuclear material for a weapons programme.
Syrian security forces guard al-Omar oil field, which is not believed to be connected to the nuclear sites – Abdulmonam Eassa/Getty Images
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Syria’s foreign ministry accused Israel of targeting an air base in the north-west of the country.
State TV said eight strikes hit the runway of the Abu al-Duhur air base, in the north-western province of Idlib. It gave no further details.
Syria’s foreign ministry condemned the strike in a terse statement calling it an “unjustified aggression and a flagrant violation of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”.
There was no comment from the Israeli military on the attack.
Tom Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkey and special envoy to Syria, posted on X that Washington was “deeply concerned that the confirmed Israeli air strikes” on the Abu al-Duhur air base constituted “an unnecessary escalation that does not advance regional stability”.
The United States has hosted in the past, and will continue to host, discussions to encourage diplomacy, he added.
Donald Trump, the US president, has met Ahmed al-Sharaa, Syria’s interim president, since his rebels swept to power in 2024, and has taken steps to normalise ties with Syria.
Israel carried out hundreds of air strikes around Syria after Assad’s fall, mainly destroying assets of the Syrian army to keep them out of the hands of his successors.