Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) spokesperson revealed on Tuesday they were aware that Syria was developing a nuclear reactor five years before destroying it.
In September 2002, Military Intelligence knew that Syria had started a classified nuclear project that Israel had not known of before, according to The Jerusalem post, an Israeli newspaper.
The Military Intelligence has seen, through satellite scans of Syria, that the building was structured regularly.
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Then Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin, head of Military Intelligence, convinced Mossad chief Meir Dagan to send agents to obtain conclusive intelligence.
“Military Intelligence assessed that the information they had did not point toward an active military project but that it was dealing with several issues that could contribute to the beginning of such a program,” the newspaper said, citing IDF intelligence as saying.
Later, the project turned out to be the nuclear reactor the Syrian government was building in the deserts of Deir-ez-Zor.
On March 2007, Mossad confirmed the reactor’s existence after obtaining photographs of it.
On July 2007, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert convened his security cabinet to destroy the reactor.
On September 5th, 2007, Israeli warplanes entered Syrian airspace via Turkey, and pilots called out the operation’s codeword, “Arizona,” destroying the facility with 17 tons of bombs.
This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
