Stricken Syria's Reactor Planes May Be Israel's Next Target

International International News

Posted by AI on 2025-09-03 17:42:29 | Last Updated by AI on 2025-09-03 20:59:04

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Israeli bombers may have their sights set on a new target in Syria, satellite images suggest. The Israeli Air Force has been repeatedly bombing Iranian-linked facilities in Syria for years, but a new image suggests intensified construction on a major new structure at a key nuclear facility long-suspected to be part of Israel's atomic weapons programme.

The image, taken on March 5, reveals a new building under construction at the site, located in the town of Dir Attuti about 50km west of the Syrian capital Damascus, not far from the Israeli border. The facility is owned by the Syrian Atomic Energy Commission (SAEC), which has a long-standing and sprawling campus there, and is dedicated to nuclear research and development. However, the new structure has been added in an area where there is a small, dedicated nuclear reactor, which international observers have long believed to be the centre of Syria's covert atomic weapons programme.

Experts say the building is not a new civilian research reactor which Syria says it has the right to build, and has been discussing for years with Russian help but a potentially significant development for its nuclear weapons programme. This is because the reactor, which is not under IAEA oversight and is believed to be based on North Korea's Yongbyon reactor, is thought to be able to produce significant amounts of weapons-grade plutonium.

"The construction activity at Dir Attuti is not related to any known civil nuclear programme in Syria," said EmmaIrwin, senior lecturer in nuclear law and non-proliferation at the University of Buckingham, who analysed the image for The Telegraph. "The building appears to be very close to the reactor which is surprising as it may indicate a desire to co-locate an extensive new facility with the reactor or to replace the reactor."

She said the building did not have the characteristics of a nuclear reactor, but could be related to a previous publicly reported plan to build a plutonium separation plant at the site. Such a plant, which uses chemical processes to separate plutonium from spent nuclear fuel, could provide the fissile material for building atomic weapons. No plutonium separation plant is known to be operating in Syria, though the SAEC has reportedly disclosed plans to build one.

"The building is very large and appears to be a significant structure that has been constructed in stages since at least 2020," Dr Irwin added. "The fact that it is not a civilian research reactor is significant as Iran and Syria have publicly stated that they intend to build one in Syria, with Russian agreement."

Iran has been backing President Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria's civil war, and has been expanding its influence in countries across the Middle East. Israel has vowed to stop its arch-enemy Iran becoming a nuclear power, and has carried out hundreds of air strikes on Iranian-linked facilities in Syria.

Last year, Israeli planes struck a covert nuclear reactor under construction in the Syrian province of Deir ez-Zor, which was believed to be jointly constructed by Iran and North Korea. It was apparently built with Iranian and North Korean experts working together on every aspect of the project, from engineering to nuclear supervision, with the goal of producing plutonium for nuclear weapons.

Iran and Syria deny allegations of having a nuclear weapons programme.

Quotation:

"Today, the Syrian regime recognizes the Israeli nuclear threat as a real and serious one. In the past, the Syrian regime used denial and deflecting tactics to deal with its nuclear weapons programme, but today it seems to be acknowledging that it is a target for the Israelis."

Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies

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