Head of U.N. nuclear watchdog meets Assad 13 years after Syrian conflict
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – U.N.’s nuclear watchdog director said on Tuesday he visited Syria to resume talks on building confidence in the peaceful use of atomic energy by the country.
Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus 13 years after the Syrian conflict started.
“We’re ready to start working on reigniting high-level dialogue between the IAEA and Syria, focusing on building confidence in the peaceful use of nuclear energy in Syria,” Grossi stated on X (previously Twitter).
On March 5, Grossi revealed he received an invitation from Faisal Mekdad, Foreign Minister of Syria, to visit Damascus “to re-establish a meaningful, constructive dialogue and process to facilitate the clarification of remaining issues from the past.”
The last time IAEA inspectors visited Syria was in 2011 when the Syrian war started.
At the time, the inspectors were aiming to resume an investigation into a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor intended for the production of plutonium for atomic weaponry in the desert of Deir ez-Zor, eastern Syria, that was destroyed by an Israeli air raid in 2007.
The Syrian government denied it was a secret nuclear site, but in 2011 the IAEA came to the conclusion that it was “very likely” to have been a reactor that inspectors should have been informed about.
Syria has no official nuclear power reactor in operation but an official energy planning study conducted in 2010, suggested a nuclear power program encompassing two nuclear reactors would be viable to contribute to national electricity production after 2020. Since then, however, the country has been devastated by war and output of previously conducted studies are no longer valid, according to IAEA.