Syria Confirms Secret Nuclear Materials at “Site 99,” IAEA Verifies On Site

Syrian Foreign Minister Asad al-Shaybani affirmed on Tuesday that Syria upholds its right to use nuclear energy exclusively for peaceful and civilian purposes. He stressed that nuclear materials located at a classified site within the country remain under the full custodianship of the Syrian state.

Speaking during a joint press conference with Rafael Grossi, Director General of the United Nations-affiliated International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), al-Shaybani stated that Damascus will establish the necessary conditions to process and securely store those materials in coordination with the IAEA.

He added that Syria transmitted an official letter to the IAEA on 17 July announcing, of its own volition, the presence of nuclear materials at an undeclared site — part of the legacy inherited from the former regime.

Grossi: Several Tons of Potentially Misusable Nuclear Material Found in Syria

Al-Shaybani noted that Syria invited the IAEA to verify the site, and that Grossi and an IAEA team completed their visit to the location earlier today, collecting required samples.

Grossi confirmed that inspectors discovered several tons of nuclear material in Syria capable of being misused.

“Site 99”

U.S. and Israeli officials revealed earlier this month that the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump reached confidential understandings with both the Syrian government and Israel to remove nuclear materials stored at a secret location inside Syria — a process overseen by the IAEA, according to Axios.

The origins of the matter trace back to the clandestine nuclear program developed by the previous Syrian presidential regime of Bashar al-Assad, centered on the covert Al Kibar nuclear reactor. Among facilities closely monitored by Israel over the past two years is a site designated “Site 99.”

According to Israeli officials, the Assad regime stored nuclear materials at that location as part of the Al Kibar reactor project.

A U.S. official specified that the materials include “yellowcake uranium” — a powder produced during uranium ore processing — which can undergo further treatment stages en route to nuclear fuel cycle enrichment.

The same U.S. official indicated that the site also contains residual substances and remnants from the Al Kibar facility.

Per the U.S. official, the materials present at the site cannot be used to fabricate a nuclear weapon but could be employed in a “dirty bomb”: a conventional explosive device designed to disperse radioactive material and contaminate a targeted area, without producing a nuclear explosion.