IAEA closes Syria safeguards case
by Jolyon: Rafael Grossi
A major nuclear question hanging over Syria has officially been resolved. IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi confirmed the agency closed its safeguards non-compliance case after gaining the access and information it needed at Deir ez-Zor and other sites. Just a year ago, Grossi said there were serious questions about whether past activities could have been linked to nuclear weapons development. One year later, the IAEA says the issue has moved from concerning to normalcy.
Transcript (en)
One year ago, I was mentioning here from this rostrum that I had just returned from Syria where I had met President Al-Shara. As you know, there were important doubts and question marks about activities that had been taking place and might have implied a recourse to the development of nuclear weapons in that country. One year later, I can tell you that last week, in a very, very important, unprecedented decision, the IAEA confirmed the resolution of the non-compliance of Syria of its safeguards obligations. I was roughly a month ago at the Dair al-Zur site and other sites where we had all the access and information that we needed to solve these issues. So this is, I think, at these times where multilateralism, the role of the United Nations, the role of the IEA, the role of these institutions is sometimes put into question. We can see how important these instruments can be to move problems from the column of the concerning issues to the column of normalcy. And I think we have achieved that, and we should be proud of this achievement.
