Syria is willing to give up a small amount of highly enriched uranium (HEU) and to convert a nuclear research reactor near Damascus that uses this dangerous material to one that is fueled by low enriched uranium (LEU), nuclear experts say.

Miles Pomper, a senior research associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, told Al-Monitor that he learned at a conference in Bucharest this week that the Syrians are seeking to modify a small HEU-fueled research reactor and have asked for technical assistance from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Pomper, who advocates ending the civilian use of HEU worldwide, called the Syria initiative “a good step.”

The Syrian offer comes only months after the regime of Bashar al-Assad fulfilled a pledge to get rid of its stockpile of chemical weapons and precursors. This new initiative could be viewed as another effort to improve the regime’s tattered international legitimacy but it is not insignificant from a nonproliferation point of view.

Pomper told Al-Monitor it would be a contribution toward creating a civilian HEU-free zone in the Middle East. He said Israel is already planning to substitute a particle accelerator to make medical isotopes that doesn’t require HEU and Iran, the only other country in the region that has a small research reactor that uses HEU, might be persuaded to do so as well in the aftermath of concluding a nuclear agreement with the United States, the other permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany.