Israel Admits 2007 Syrian 'Nuclear Reactor' Strike for 1st Time

This combination of pictures created on March 20, 2018 of handout images provided by the Israeli army reportedly shows an aerial view of a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor during bombardment in 2007. Israeli Army / AFP
This combination of pictures created on March 20, 2018 of handout images provided by the Israeli army reportedly shows an aerial view of a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor during bombardment in 2007. Israeli Army / AFP
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Israel Admits 2007 Syrian 'Nuclear Reactor' Strike for 1st Time

This combination of pictures created on March 20, 2018 of handout images provided by the Israeli army reportedly shows an aerial view of a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor during bombardment in 2007. Israeli Army / AFP
This combination of pictures created on March 20, 2018 of handout images provided by the Israeli army reportedly shows an aerial view of a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor during bombardment in 2007. Israeli Army / AFP

Israel confirmed for the first time Wednesday it was responsible for a 2007 air raid against a suspected nuclear reactor in eastern Syria, a strike it was long believed to have carried out.

The declassified material includes footage of the strike, video of a speech by military chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot on the operation and pictures of secret army intelligence communiques about the site.

A military statement summarizing the operation lays out the case for why Israel carried out the strike at the desert site in the Deir Ezzor region on what it says was a nuclear reactor under construction.

It has long been widely assumed that Israel carried out the strike at al-Kubar facility. Syria has meanwhile denied it was building a nuclear reactor.

"On the night between September 5th-6th, 2007, Israeli Air Force fighter jets successfully struck and destroyed a Syrian nuclear reactor in development," the Israeli statement says.

"The reactor was close to being completed. The operation successfully removed an emerging existential threat to Israel and to the entire region -- Syrian nuclear capabilities."

The admission along with the release of newly declassified material related to the raid comes as Israel intensifies its warnings over the presence of its main enemy Iran in neighboring Syria.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also repeatedly called for the nuclear deal between world powers and Iran to be changed or eliminated.

US President Donald Trump, who met Netanyahu at the White House this month, has said that the nuclear deal must be "fixed" by May 12 or the United States will walk away.

The UN atomic watchdog declared in 2011 that the Syrian site was "very likely" to have been a nuclear reactor, adding that information provided to it suggested that it was being built with North Korean assistance.

The Israeli military announcement on Wednesday noted that the area in question, around Deir Ezzor, was captured by ISIS after the Syrian civil war erupted in 2011.

Had there been an active reactor there, the Israeli military said, it would have had "severe strategic implications on the entire Middle East as well as Israel and Syria".



Türkiye Resolves Residency Dispute of Exiled Brotherhood Judge Sharaby

Egyptian judge Waleed Sharaby (Facebook)
Egyptian judge Waleed Sharaby (Facebook)
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Türkiye Resolves Residency Dispute of Exiled Brotherhood Judge Sharaby

Egyptian judge Waleed Sharaby (Facebook)
Egyptian judge Waleed Sharaby (Facebook)

An exiled Egyptian judge affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood said he ended an open-ended hunger strike after Turkish authorities intervened to resolve his residency status, following a public plea to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Waleed Sharaby, who fled to Türkiye in 2016 after being sentenced in Egypt, announced on Facebook late Thursday that he was halting his protest, which began outside a police station where he had been staging a sit-in.

He said the hunger strike was in response to Turkish authorities preventing him from leaving the country and refusing to renew his residency for nearly two years.

Sharaby claimed Turkish security services had acted on pressure from Egypt’s intelligence services, prompting him to appeal directly to Erdogan. He did not provide evidence for the alleged interference.

Moreover, Sharaby said he ended a two-day hunger strike and sit-in protest in Türkiye after receiving a call from a senior Turkish official who pledged to resolve his legal and residency issues.

Sharaby wrote on Facebook that he returned home and resumed eating on Thursday after the official, whose identity he did not disclose, invited him to a meeting and assured him that part of the issue would be resolved soon. “We may succeed in fully resolving the matter following this initial step,” he said.

Sharaby, who fled Egypt in 2016 after court rulings against him, began his hunger strike on Wednesday outside a police station in protest over what he described as Turkish authorities’ refusal to renew his residency for nearly two years and a travel ban that prevented him from leaving the country.

According to sources, Turkish authorities briefly detained him on Wednesday while attempting to depart the country, citing alleged financial violations involving Turkish citizens. He was held for a day before being released, after which he launched his protest.

During his sit-in, Sharaby publicly appealed to Erdogan via Facebook, asking for a personal meeting or for the issue to be referred to the appropriate authorities.

He claimed he had been subjected to “severe harassment” and travel restrictions, including pressure on a business he owns in Türkiye and a ban on leaving the country to seek asylum, reportedly in a European state, where his wife and children relocated nearly two years ago.

Turkish authorities have not publicly commented on the case. Türkiye has hosted several exiled members of the Muslim Brotherhood following the group's ouster from power in Egypt in 2013, though Ankara has since moved to restore ties with Cairo.

Sources close to Sharaby said Turkish authorities have agreed to grant him humanitarian residency, allowing him to remain in the country permanently despite the expiry of his Egyptian passport.

The move aligns with similar measures taken for other members of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is designated a terrorist organization by the Egyptian government.