The new Syrian government has agreed to immediately grant inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) access to alleged former nuclear sites, agency chief Rafael Grossi told The Associated Press yesterday, quoted by BTA.
The IAEA director-general said in an interview in Damascus, where he met with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and other officials, that the Syrian leader has expressed interest in the future use of nuclear energy in Syria.
The agency's goal is "to bring full clarity to certain activities carried out in the past that the agency believes may have been related to nuclear weapons," Grossi said.
IAEA team visited some sites of interest in 2024, while former President Bashar al-Assad was still in power. Since Assad's fall in December, the IAEA has been trying to restore access to sites related to Syria's nuclear program.
Grossi described the new government as “committed to opening up to the world for international cooperation“ and said he hoped the inspection process would be completed within a few months.
“Our cooperation is essential to resolve outstanding issues and to focus on the much-needed assistance that the IAEA can provide to Syria in the areas of health and agriculture“, he stressed, quoted by Agence France-Presse.
In the past, the IAEA has repeatedly called on Syria to provide full cooperation regarding the alleged existence of a nuclear reactor in the Deir ez-Zor desert in eastern Syria, AFP reported.
In 2018, Israel admitted that it had carried out a top-secret air strike in 2007 on what it described as a nuclear reactor under construction in the area. Syria denied the existence of such a project.