The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has mentioned in its latest report that Syria secretly made an attempt to develop nuclear weapons under the leadership of ousted President Bashar al-Assad.

The UN nuclear watchdog sent a delegation to Damascus after decades-long civil war triggered a regime change in the West Asian nation in December 2024. Fredrik Dahl, the spokesperson of the IAEA, has mentioned in a statement that members of the delegation visited a remote desert site in Deir el-Zour to collect environmental samples from three locations. These locations were allegedly “functionally related” to a nuclear site. As the IAEA inspectors have discovered uranium particles at the site, the intergovernmental organisation suspects the site was once used as part of a clandestine nuclear programme run by the administration of former President al-Assad.

Dahl further mentioned in the statement: “Analysis revealed a significant number of anthropogenic natural uranium particles in samples taken at one of the three locations. Some of these uranium particles are consistent with the conversion of uranium ore concentrate to uranium oxide.” He claimed that it would be typical of a nuclear power reactor. According to Dahl, the IAEA delegation collected more samples for “evaluating the results of all of the environmental samples taken at this location and the information acquired from the planned visit to the site, and may conduct follow-up activities, as necessary”.

Reports suggest that Rafael Grossi, the Director General of the IAEA, informed the agency’s Board of Directors about these findings, stressing: “The current Syrian authorities indicated that they had no information that might explain the presence of such uranium particles.” The UN nuclear watchdog has urged Damascus to cooperate fully over allegations that the former regime had been building a covert nuclear reactor at Deir el-Zour. Grossi informed the press that although Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa (also known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Julani), the Interim President of Syria and the former rebel commander, expressed interest in pursuing nuclear energy for Syria in the future, he granted IAEA inspectors access to the location for a second time in order to gather more samples.

As Russia used to maintain close defence ties with the al-Assad Regime, the IAEA officials are of the opinion that President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin might have helped Syria to run a secret nuclear programme. It may be noted that al-Assad, along with his family, fled to Moscow after the Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a Sunni Islamist political organisation and paramilitary group involved in the Syrian civil war, and its affiliate Jaysh al-Izza (The Army of Glory) overthrew the al-Assad Regime through a large-scale offensive against the regime forces in just 12 days (from November 27 to December 8, 2024).

A section of ISIS terrorists allegedly fought against the al-Assad forces during the civil war. Interestingly, the HTS received support from Turkey, a member of the US-led NATO alliance. In early July 2025, President al-Sharaa decided to incorporate former militants into the Government Forces at the request of Kurds. However, Israel took control of some Syrian territories, adjacent to the Golan Heights, immediately after the regime change in Damascus.

Incidentally, the IAEA reported on May 31, 2025 that Iran had sharply increased its stockpile of uranium enriched to 60% purity, just below weapons-grade, reaching over 408kg, a nearly 50% rise since February. A couple of weeks later, Israel’s historic Operation Rising Lion (June 13, 2025) and the US’ Operation Midnight Hammer (June 22, 2025) targeted three Iranian nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, causing massive damage to the nuclear programme of the Islamic Republic.

Meanwhile, Grossi has claimed that the IAEA would help Syria to rebuild the radiotherapy, nuclear medicine and oncology infrastructure in order to boost the healthcare system that has been severely weakened by nearly 14 years of civil war.

Meanwhile,

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das