Israeli warplanes attacked al-Kibar, in the remote northeast desert of Syria on September 6, 2007, with the goal of destroying what Israeli intelligence believes was a rudimentary nuclear facility.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) released a statement on April 25, 2008, saying that it was informed by the United States that the al-Kibar region housed a "nuclear reactor that was not yet operational."

Ammar Abdulhamid, a Syrian dissident, both condemned the Israeli attack and said he "[C]annot… forget or ignore those who precipitated it," the Assad regime. Writing in his Heretic Blog [5], Abudlhamid points to the ruling al-Assad clan's aggressive nuclear ambitions as "sharply at odds with the national interests of Syria."

As a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and under its Safeguards Agreement with the IAEA, Syria has an obligation to report the planning and construction of any nuclear facility. While criticizing the fact that Syria did not provide information to the IAEA of any nuclear activity, the Director General of IAEA viewed "the unilateral use of force by Israel as undermining the due process of verification that is at the heart of the non-proliferation regime."