Syria admits holding nuclear material, but refuses handover, saying: ‘We have the right to use it’

Peloni:  Of course, as expected, when Saudi Arabia was to be offered a no holds barred ‘civilian’ nuclear deal, every tin-pot dictator in the region was going to try to follow in the Saudi’s footsteps.  Yet in Syria, we have a certified wanted terrorist who has the blood of unknown numbers of US servicemen on his hands, and a recently cancelled bounty of $10 million on his head, not to mention being tightly tied to Erdogan’s strings of control.  This is the making of a nuclear disaster.

By Christine Douglass-Williams | Aug 20, 2026

Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Abdullah Alhinai and Ahmed al-Sharaa, Open Government Licence – Oman 1.0, Wikimedia Commons

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa is a former al-Qaeda terrorist who has also worked closely with Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, before double crossing him.

The only thing that has changed about al-Sharaa is his name (from Abu Mohammad al-Jolani) and his attire: He now wears a suit. He has fooled the naive West, including Trump, through mere image. Syrian minorities are paying the price:

Now al-Sharaa has “a treasure trove of nuclear material that can be weaponized,” but of course his government will continue to minimize any malign intent. This leaves Israel with an obvious problem as its enemies bloviate about how Israel uses excessive force to keep its country existing in a neighborhood of jihadist thugs.

“Nuclear material found in Syria will remain in the country, minister says,” Times of Israel, August 18, 2026:

Nuclear material found at an undisclosed site in Syria is not dangerous and will remain in Syrian custody, subject to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s guarantees, Syria’s foreign minister says.

Asaad al-Shibani adds in a joint press conference with IAEA chief Rafael Grossi in Damascus that Syria has the right to use the material for civil and peaceful purposes.

Since the ouster of president Bashar al-Assad in late 2024, Syria’s new authorities have committed to working with the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog to address the legacy of nuclear activities during decades of Assad family rule.

Grossi says the agency was able to access the site after the Syrian government notified it.

Grossi adds that his agency had found several tons of nuclear materials at a previously undeclared site dating from the rule of Syria’s previous authorities.

“After your courageous decision to inform us that there was another place, another site where nuclear material had been stored, we were able to access this place… we are talking about a few tons of nuclear material that could be put to bad use,” he says…