Syria Reported Its Secret Nuclear Facility to the IAEA

Foreign Minister of the Damascus administration, Assad Hasan Shaybani, said at a joint press conference with IAEA President Rafael Grossi in Damascus on Tuesday that his country is committed to the right to use nuclear energy for peaceful and civilian purposes. Şeybani stated that the nuclear materials in the secret facility will remain under the control of the Syrian state under the guarantees of the IAEA, and that they will work in coordination with the Agency for the safe processing and storage of the materials. Stating that the Syrian administration notified the IAEA about the facility in question, Şeybani said, "We sent an official letter to the Agency on July 17, informing us of our own will that there were nuclear materials in an undeclared facility left over from the former regime." Şeybani noted that the IAEA delegation inspected the facility on Tuesday morning and collected the necessary samples. Grossi said, "We found several tons of nuclear material in Syria that could be misused." FACILITY NUMBER 99 According to Al Arabiya, US and Israeli officials claimed at the beginning of this month that the Trump administration had reached a secret agreement with the Syrian government and Israel. It was stated that the agreement envisaged the safe removal of nuclear materials stored in a secret facility in Syria under the supervision of the IAEA. According to the allegations based on Axios' news, the substances in question are linked to the secret nuclear program carried out during the reign of former Syrian President Bashar Assad. It is claimed that the facility, which Israel has been closely monitoring for about two years, is known as 'Facility No. 99' and that the Assad administration is storing the materials left over from the Al Kibar nuclear reactor project there. WHERE CAN IT BE USED? According to a US official, among the substances found in the facility is 'yellowcake' obtained by processing uranium ore. Yellow cake can be further processed to make it suitable for enrichment within the nuclear fuel cycle. It was also stated that some materials remaining from the El Kibar facility were also stored in the facility.