Syria’s Assad-era reactor configured for nuclear weapons: IAEA
UN watchdog says material from facility, bombed in 2007, now under IAEA safeguards.
Syria’s Assad-era nuclear facility was configured to produce material for possible use in nuclear weapons, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency has reported.
The nuclear reactor, which the United Nations nuclear watchdog has been investigating with the cooperation of Syria’s new authorities, would have been able to produce fissile material that could be used for weapons, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi told a media conference in Vienna on Monday.
“This is a reactor that is very efficient in the production of fissile material that could be used directly for the fabrication of nuclear weapons,” he said.
It only became public knowledge after Israeli air strikes in 2007 destroyed the facility. Syria later levelled the site and never responded fully to the IAEA’s questions about it.