International Atomic Energy Agency Removes Syria from List of Non-Compliant States Under the Chemical Weapons Convention

The Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) decided yesterday to close the file concerning Syria’s failure to meet its obligations, expressing satisfaction with the cooperation shown by the new Syrian authorities. The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported that the IAEA Board of Governors adopted a decision to remove Syria from the list of non-compliant states under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty from its agenda. SANA quoted the Syrian Atomic Energy Commission as saying that this decision results from the success of intensive national Syrian efforts over the past year and a half to fully lift the non-compliance situation, while fully preserving the rights and achievements of the Syrian Arab Republic in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. Diplomats told the Agence France-Presse (AFP) that the consensus decision, adopted without a formal vote, ends proceedings initiated against Syria in 2011.

It is recalled that IAEA inspectors visited two sites last month, one being the Al-Kibar site in Deir ez-Zor and the other at a location not disclosed, which was guided to them by the new Syrian authorities. IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said last Monday that a nearly completed nuclear reactor found in Deir ez-Zor, which had been built in secret during the rule of ousted President Bashar al-Assad, could have produced materials used in the manufacture of nuclear weapons.

Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Saudi Arabia submitted a draft resolution, which AFP had seen, “encouraging Syria to continue its cooperation with the Agency, including drilling activities at the Deir ez-Zor site.” It also “requests the Director General to inform the Board, as appropriate, of the results of the Agency’s ongoing activities” in Syria.

In addition to the reactor under construction at the Deir ez-Zor site, the IAEA discovered a facility for manufacturing nuclear fuel intended for the reactor, a site for nuclear fuel storage, as well as uranium scrap and waste. The Agency revealed in a confidential report seen by AFP last week that it had found approximately 73 tons of natural uranium metal.

Grossi praised the “brave decision” of the new government to disclose the previously undisclosed site. The IAEA had announced in 2011 that the site “most likely” housed a nuclear reactor, adding that available information indicated it was being built with assistance from North Korea. Grossi visited the site in Deir ez-Zor, eastern Syria, last month, which had remained closed for 18 years. In 2018, Israel admitted to carrying out a highly secret air strike on the site 11 years earlier. In 2008, less than a year after the strike, U.S. officials accused Syria of seeking to build a secret nuclear reactor and confirmed that Israel had destroyed it in the strike.