After the Israeli strike on a site in the East of Syria in Deir al-Zour area, many reports came out based on Israeli leaks about the nature of the site, which had been struck. These reports were extremely surprising as they indicated that this site is a nuclear facility. Further elaborated reports based on further leaked information indicated that this nuclear facility contains a nuclear reactor.

Other reports talked about a plutonium factory designed for producing atomic bombs citing in this regard some air photos of the site provided by some commercial companies. These photos shows a building has the same design of North Korean reactors as it looks like the North Korean nuclear reactor whose resemblance to the Syrian building supports the leaked information on the nature of this site and the nuclear cooperation between Baath regime and its North Korean counterpart.

Those previous reports accompanied Israeli official silence on this question along with the same stance by the United States, which abandoned its silence after referring the Syrian nuclear question to the International Atomic Energy Agency IAEA while Israel is still keeping the secrecy about this question.

Earlier along with the Israeli strike, North Korea made a precedent in its foreign relations when it officially condemned the Israeli action. This act by the North Korean regime did nothing but proving the North Korean connection with the Syrian attacked facility. At this time, some reports came out talking about wounded or killed North Korean experts by this strike.

After the strike, Baath regime began immediately removing the remains of the building and constructing another building on the site. They exactly seemed in this course of action like they are hiding something. Also, there were air photos of this process, then it is undeniable.

After a while in which there was an official silence by Israel and the United States, there was a sudden political decision to refer this question to the IAEA. This is, in fact, like an international obligation, as such secret nuclear program is a serious violation of the international law and the non-proliferation international treaty and its consequent international obligations.

Then, the IAEA had managed to make an inspection visit to the Syrian site in question, and recently it issued its report on this inspection and its results indicating that uranium trace was found in the inspected site. Furthermore, the IAEA report reached the structural resemblance between the inspected site and typical nuclear sites in terms of many essential elements including the biological shield and cooling facilities connected to the nearby Euphrates River.

In addition, the report indicated the Baath regime’s immediate actions after the strike to remove the remains and transfer them to an unknown location and to construct a new building above the destroyed suspected building to hide it along with its nature and features.

Finally, the IAEA asked the Syrian authorities for further cooperation and inspection to reach a conclusion on this question. These demands have been denied by the Baath regime so far.