DAMASCUS — The head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog said Tuesday that its inspectors had found several tons of nuclear material in Syria, at a site which the authorities said they reported to the agency last month.

Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), praised Damascus’s “courageous decision” to report the undisclosed site, which dates to the Assad-era, and said the material would be put under “international safeguards.”

“We are talking about a few tons of nuclear material that could be put to bad use,” he said.

Speaking at a joint press conference with Grossi, Syria’s Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani said: “On July 17, we sent an official letter to the agency, in which we declared of our own free will the presence of nuclear materials at an undeclared site within the legacy left by the former regime.”

Shaibani said that “technical assessments” indicate that “these materials do not pose a risk,” adding that they “will remain in Syrian national custody and subject to the agency’s safeguards system.”

Grossi, meanwhile said “this material will be accounted for, will be put within the international safeguards system.”

Syrian and IAEA experts will work together to safely store the materials,........

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