Overview
- U.S. officials say a quiet Trump administration effort secured an agreement between Syria and the IAEA to extract nuclear material from a covert facility tied to the Al‑Kibar program; the IAEA and Syrian government signed the deal roughly three weeks ago.
- The material reportedly held at the site known to Israeli intelligence as 'Site 99' includes yellowcake and other reactor residues that cannot form a nuclear weapon but could be used in a radiological dispersal device.
- Israel monitored the site for more than two years, temporarily damaged its entrances after the Assad government fell, and warned it might strike again if the material were accessed or not removed.
- The physical removal operation has not yet begun; U.S. and IAEA sources say they hope to start soon and aim to complete the extraction before the end of the year while keeping the site under close surveillance.
- This effort builds on long‑running IAEA work dating to its 2008–2011 inspections of Al‑Kibar and follows access secured with Syria's post‑Assad authorities after the regime fell in December 2024, and it addresses immediate nonproliferation and public safety concerns.