In September 2007, Israeli combat aircraft reduced a complex in the Syrian desert of Deir Ezzor to debris. Israel said that there was a nuclear reactor there with the help of North Korea. The Bashar al Asad government replied that it was nothing more than a military base. For years, both versions met in the field of suspicion.
Now, eighteen years later, the International Atomic Energy Agency (OIEA) provides evidence that incline the balance: in that place there was processed uranium.
A few particles. According to a confidential report quoted by APNewsthe agency’s inspectors found “a significant amount of natural uranium particles” in one of the three sites examined in the last two years.
As Reuters has pointed outit is not a rich uranium, but of anthropogenic origin: it had gone through a chemical process. “The analysis indicated that uranium occurred as a result of chemical processing,” the document said. According to Apnewssome of these particles coincide with the conversion of mineral concentrate into uranium oxide, a usual step in fuel production for reactors.
A nuclear plan never recognized. The history of this “ghost reactor” begins in 2011. The OIEA had already estimated that the building destroyed by Israel was “most likely a nuclear reactor that should have been declared” by Syria. According to Apnewsthe installation would have been built with the support of North Korean engineers, which would explain the secrecy of the Bashar al Asad regime.
Rafael Grossi, current director of the OIEA, acknowledged in statements collected by the news agency that some of the Syrian activities “were probably related to nuclear weapons.” However, Damascus always denied it. After the Israeli bombing, he leveled the land of Deir Ezzor to erase traces and refused to fully answer the questions of the international organism.
The fall of Al-ásad. The turn came with the end of the Bashar al Asad regime, overthrown last year After almost three lustra of civil war. The new interim government, led by Ahmed al Sharaa, agreed to cooperate with the UN Nuclear Agency. Besides, As Reuters has had accessin June the authorities allowed for the second time the taking of environmental samples.
It was not a linear process. According to The IndependentAsad’s departure temporarily interrupted the investigation: “We are still evaluating what we find there and we have a large questioning sign, because we do not have an interlocutor,” Grossi admitted in December 2024. With the restoration of contacts this year, the OIEA is optimistic: “Once the results are evaluated, it will be possible to resolve the pending issues related to the past nuclear activities of Syria.”
A region marked by proliferation. Beyond the Syrian case, the findings are registered in a region marked by the shadow of nuclear proliferation. As we have pointed out in XatakaIsrael has bombarded on different occasions facilities in Iraq, Iran and Syria under the argument of preventing their enemies Develop atomic weapons.
Grossi himself warned Bloomberg statements that the power vacuum in Syria opens the risk of looting nuclear materials in research centers.
A civil nuclear future for Syria? Paradoxically, the new Syrian leadership has expressed interest in exploring a civil nuclear program. According to Al Jazeerathe interim president Al Sharaa discussed with the OIEA the possibility of resorting to small modular reactors to generate energy and asked for help to rebuild nuclear medical infrastructure, devastated by more than a decade of war.
The OIEA has expressed willingness to collaborate in these areas, always under a transparent framework of safeguards.
A file to close. The history of Deir Ezzor reactor seems to reach its final chapter. What began as a bombing wrapped in controversy and denials is now corroborated with scientific evidence.
The OIEA insists that the new samples will allow the case to close, but the questions persist: How far did the Syrian clandestine nuclear program really arrive? What external actors fed him? And can a country devastated by war reorient its relationship with nuclear energy towards peaceful uses?
Eighteen years after the Israeli attack, the ghost reactor is no longer a rumor: it is the proof of a secret that Damascus tried to bury in the desert sand.
Image | IAEA IMEBANK and Unspash
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