BASIC FACTS

The territory of modern-day Syria is one of the oldest continuously inhabited in the world, located in the Middle East region and bordered by Israel, Lebanon, and Jordan to the south, Iraq to the east, and Turkey to the north. Syria’s government, rival political groups, and a number of international actors have been entangled in armed conflict since 2011. The violence has generated over half a million deaths and over 5 million refugees according to UN estimates. Syria has a semi-presidential republic type of government that gained its independence in 1946.

Capital: Damascus

There are currently no nuclear power plants in Syria. Syria has one research reactor (SRR-1) used for isotope production, neutron activation analysis, and training by the Atomic Energy Commission of Syria (AECS).

In 2007, a suspected undeclared nuclear reactor at the Al Kibar site in the Deir ez-Zor region of Syria was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike. Both American and Israeli intelligence suggested the nuclear facility had a military purpose, denied by Syria. In 2011, the IAEA stated that tests confirmed the site had been a nuclear reactor.

Syria is believed to have produced a stockpile of chemical weapons since the 1980s, although undeclared, and did not ratify the Chemical Weapons Convention until 2013. In August of that year, the Syrian government launched a chemical attack against opposition groups in Ghouta, killing an estimated 200-1000 civilians. Following the attack, a joint OPCW-United Nations mission negotiated with the Assad government to destroy its chemical weapons and immediately accede to the CWC. By July 2014, United State Secretary of State John Kerry declared that Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile was “100% destroyed,” although there have been subsequent uses of chemical weapons in the Syrian Civil War, as recently as 2017.

TREATIES AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS

• Member of Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) since 1964
• Member of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) since 1963
• Acceded to 1925 Geneva Protocol in 1968
• Signed Convention on Environmental Modification Techniques (ENMOD) in 1977
• Acceded to the Outer Space Treaty in 1968
• Signed Partial Test Ban Treaty in 1963
  • Ratified in 1964
• Signed Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) in 1972
• Acceded to Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) in 2013
• Acceded to the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Materials (CPPNM) in 2019
• Signed International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism (ICSANT) in 2005
• Signed Treaty for the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in 1968
  • Ratified in 1969

REGIONAL GROUPS

• Member of the Asia-Pacific Group
• Member of the G-77
• Member of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)

LINKS

Permanent Mission of the Syrian Arab Republic to the United Nations

Syrian Arab Republic Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates

Syrian Atomic Energy Commission

UN State Summary

Ratification of Treaties & Membership in International Organizations Related to Disarmament