Operation Outside the Box

Operation Outside the Box, also known as Operation Orchard, was an Israeli airstrike on a confirmed nuclear reactor under construction, referred to as the Al Kibar site (also referred to in IAEA documents as Dair Alzour), in the Deir ez-Zor region of Syria, which occurred just after midnight (local time) on 6 September 2007. In 2026 it was established the Syrians held 27 tons of nuclear materials associated to the site, including yellow cake, and the Trump administration, Israel and Syria negotiated a deal to remove it from Syria. The Israeli and U.S. governments did not announce the secret raids for seven months. The White House and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) subsequently confirmed that American intelligence had also indicated the site was a nuclear facility with a military purpose, though Syria's Assad government denied this. A 2009 International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) investigation reported evidence of uranium and graphite and concluded that the site bore features resembling an undeclared nuclear reactor. IAEA was initially unable to confirm or deny the nature of the site because, according to IAEA, Syria failed to provide necessary cooperation with the IAEA investigation. Syria has disputed these claims. Nearly four years later, in April 2011 during the Syrian civil war, the IAEA officially confirmed that the site was a nuclear reactor. Israel did not acknowledge the attack until 2018. The attack reportedly followed Israeli top-level consultations with the Bush administration. After realizing that the US was not willing to bomb the site after being told so by U.S. president George W. Bush, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert decided to adhere to the 1981 Begin Doctrine and unilaterally strike to prevent a Syrian nuclear weapons capability, despite serious concerns about Syrian retaliation. In stark contrast to the doctrine's prior usage against Iraq, the airstrike against Syria did...