• Military

• WMD Menu                           

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Israel's nuclear arsenal only 'widely assumed,' UK again insists

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

London, Feb 27, IRNA
UK-Israel Nuclear Arsenal
The British government is continuing to insist that Israel's possession of nuclear weapons is only widely assumed, despite former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw admitting in November that its arsenal was not a secret.

"We are aware of the widespread assumption that Israel possesses nuclear weapons," Foreign Office Minister Kim Howells said in response to what the government's policy was on whether the Zionist regime is a nuclear state.

"But note that the Israeli Government have refused to confirm it," Howells said in a written parliamentary reply published Tuesday.

He made no mention to prime minister Ehud Ohmert's recent admission about his regime's arsenal, but insisted the UK government have "on a number of occasions called on Israel to accede to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty as a non-nuclear weapon state." "We take appropriate opportunities to discuss all aspects of non- proliferation with representatives of the Israeli government," the minister told MPs.

Straw, who is the current Leader of the House of Commons, became the first member of the British cabinet to go on public record last November and formally admit that Tel Aviv has an arsenal of nuclear weapons.

"I don't think it is a secret. I have never pretended that they haven't got nuclear weapons, certainly they have got a nuclear arsenal and it is a working assumption," Straw said in an interview with the Muslims News.

He made the admission after he was challenged about the government's failure to acknowledge yet alone deal with Israel's nuclear weapons.

Last year, it was also revealed by the BBC, using classified documents, that the UK secretly helped the Zionist regime to develop nuclear weapons in the 1960s by supplying heavy water and plutonium to Israel.

The focus of Israel's nuclear arsenal comes after the British government has been accused of double standards in raising concerns about Iran's civilian programme while adopting a 'conspiracy of silence' in not even acknowledging the Zionist regime's weapons.

Challenged about the 'double standards' by western government while he was still foreign secretary last March, Straw suggested that the UK would deal with Israel's illegal stockpile of weapons only after it resolved the concern over Iran's civilian programme.

Speaking at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, he said the UK wanted Israel to join the NPT and said that his government also signed a UN proposal in 1995 calling for the whole of the Middle East to be nuclear weapon free.

2220/345/1416