IAEA reports progress in Syria investigation, none in Iran

The U.N. nuclear watchdog has resolved its outstanding questions from an investigation into secret nuclear activities in Syria under the Assad family's rule but made no progress in Iran, it said ‌on Tuesday in confidential reports seen by Reuters. One of the International Atomic Energy Agency reports sent to member states ahead of next week's quarterly meeting of the IAEA's Board of Governors praised the new Syrian authorities for their "transparency and cooperation" in helping uncover the past activities and the material that remains.

Since the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad in late ‌2024, Syria's new authorities have committed to working with the IAEA. "The agency, having received the necessary information and access from Syria, ... has been able to clarify ‌and resolve the agency's questions concerning the outstanding safeguards issues previously reported to the (IAEA) Board," it said.

TONS OF NUCLEAR REACTOR FUEL In 2007, Israel bombed an undeclared site in Syria's eastern province of Deir al-Zor that Tuesday's report confirmed was a nuclear reactor under construction.

The IAEA also confirmed the presence of around 73 metric tons of natural uranium metal at a connected location, of which 55 tons were in ⁠the form ​of fuel rods, the report said, adding that ⁠fuel for the reactor was made at a location in Syria. All the nuclear material is "currently subject to Agency containment and surveillance measures", the report said. Syria has said it will remain in the ⁠country.

"The Agency is able to establish that the former Syrian authorities had failed to report nuclear material, facilities and activities as required," the report said, listing the reactor, fuel fabrication plant and ​a location where the fuel was stored as facilities that should have been declared. "Syria has taken measures to remedy the situation by providing to the ⁠Agency the required nuclear material accounting reports and design information for the above-mentioned facilities," the report said.

'PROLIFERATION CONCERN' IN IRAN The report on Iran showed there had again been no progress. Inspectors have yet to return ⁠to ​nuclear sites the United States and Israel bombed in June 2025.

Until those attacks, the IAEA estimates Iran had 440.9 kg of uranium enriched to up to 60% purity, a short step from the roughly 90% of weapons-grade uranium. That is enough material, if enriched further, for 10 nuclear weapons, according to an IAEA yardstick, and ⁠Iran also had material enriched to lower levels. How much of that remains is unclear.

"It is more than a year since the Agency lost continuity of knowledge in ⁠relation to the previously declared inventories ⁠of LEU (low-enriched uranium) and HEU (highly enriched uranium) enriched up to 60% U-235 at the declared nuclear facilities affected by the attacks of June 2025," the report said. "The Agency's lack of information about this nuclear material and access to facilities to verify it ‌is a matter of proliferation concern ... ‌and needs to be addressed with the utmost urgency," it added.