Axios: Washington secretly mediates removal of nuclear materials from Syria

The website “Axios” reported that U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration reached secret understandings with Syria’s transitional government and Israel to remove nuclear materials stored at a secret site inside Syria, in a move aimed at preventing a potential escalation between Israel and Syria, and possibly Turkey as well.

The site quoted Israeli and U.S. officials as saying that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will soon remove the nuclear materials from a site known as “Site 99,” following an agreement reached about three weeks ago between the agency and the Syrian government.

Site 99 is linked to the secret nuclear program developed by the Bashar al-Assad regime, which centered on the Al-Kibar nuclear reactor in Deir ez-Zor province before Israel destroyed it in an airstrike in 2007.

According to Israeli officials, the former regime stored nuclear materials at the site that were part of the Al-Kibar reactor project. A U.S. official said the materials include “yellowcake,” a powder produced by processing uranium ore that can undergo further processing as part of the nuclear fuel cycle.

The official added that the site also contains remnants and leftover materials from the facility.

The U.S. official confirmed that the materials at the site cannot be used to make a nuclear weapon, but could potentially be used to make a “dirty bomb,” a conventional device designed to disperse radioactive materials and contaminate an area rather than cause a nuclear explosion.

Israeli officials said the Israeli military bombed the entrances to the site shortly after the fall of the Assad regime, in order to prevent access to the materials inside.

According to an Israeli official, Israel informed the Trump administration that it would not accept the nuclear materials remaining at the site and threatened to strike it again if the materials were not removed or if there were signs that the Syrian government was attempting to access them.

However, a U.S. official said that despite Israel’s concerns, it was not on the verge of carrying out another strike on the site.

Washington and Tel Aviv eventually concluded that the best option was to secure the Syrian government’s approval to remove the materials rather than resort to military action.

When the Trump administration raised the issue with the Syrian government, Syrian officials said they were unaware that nuclear materials were present at the site, according to sources who spoke to Axios.

The report quoted a U.S. official as saying that very few people in the United States, Israel and Syria were aware of the existence of the materials.

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ANHA