Watchdog excavates suspected nuclear site as Syria pledges safeguards

Inspectors with the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog have begun excavating at a site believed to be linked to a clandestine program run by Syria’s former rulers.

Inspectors with the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog have begun excavating at a site believed to be linked to a clandestine nuclear program run by Syria’s former government, the agency’s chief said on Thursday.

The announcement came as Syria’s new government has pledged to cooperate with the watchdog. Syria’s top diplomat said Thursday that Damascus remains interested in developing a peaceful nuclear program and intends to keep any nuclear material in its custody under international safeguards.

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.

Former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus in 2023.Borna News / Getty Images fileSyria 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.