The UN nuclear watchdog has reignited a long-dormant controversy over Syria’s past nuclear activities, telling member states Monday that it has discovered man-made uranium particles at a location tied to the Deir Ezzor complex — the site Israel destroyed in a 2007 airstrike.

The International Atomic Energy Agency report, obtained by Reuters, said inspectors collected environmental samples last year at three locations “allegedly functionally related” to the facility. One showed a “significant number” of uranium particles that had been chemically processed, though not enriched.

The finding bolsters the IAEA’s longstanding suspicion that the desert facility — which Damascus once insisted was a conventional military base — was in fact an undeclared reactor. Israel officially acknowledged responsibility for the strike only in 2018, more than a decade after it flattened the complex.

The revelation comes as Syria’s new Islamist-led government — which took power after Bashar al-Assad’s ouster in late 2024 — has signaled new openness to cooperate with the agency. In June, President Ahmed al-Sharaa met IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi and pledged “full transparency” in addressing past nuclear work.

At that meeting, Grossi requested Syrian assistance in returning to Deir Ezzor itself “in the next few months” to conduct further analysis, review documents, and interview individuals tied to the program.

The IAEA report noted that current Syrian officials told inspectors they had “no information that might explain” the uranium traces.

The 2007 strike is often cited as a textbook example of Israel’s strategy of preempting regional nuclear programs — a doctrine that also includes its 1981 attack on Iraq’s Osirak reactor and its June 2025 campaign against Iranian enrichment facilities. That latest operation sparked a 12-day air war with Tehran and drew in U.S. forces.

Today, Israeli forces remain deployed at nine posts inside southern Syria, mainly within a UN buffer zone along the border, with operations extending as deep as 15 kilometers to seize weapons that could fall into hostile hands.

The agency is still analyzing results from two other related sites. Grossi told member states that once those samples are evaluated, the IAEA will decide whether the Deir Ezzor file can finally be closed after nearly two decades.

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