From agencies, through the Arab News online today:
Yesterday, during his first official visit to Berlin, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert revealed in a tv interview and in an apprent reversal of decades-old secrecy policies, that Israel has the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal.
This raised a firestorm in Israel from both right and left-wing parties, with opposition lawmakers accusing Olmert, whose popularity had already slipped due to the engagements with Lebanon, of incompetency and undermining Israel's campaign for Western nations to curb the atomic ambitions of its arch-foe, Iran.
Independent analysts believe Israel has between 80-200 nuclear warheads since the late 1960s, which Israel has refused to discuss under an 'ambiguity' policy aimed at fending off regional foes and avoiding an arms race. This reticence is a major grievance for Arabs and Iran alike, which see a double standard in Western calls for Tehran to accept checks on a nuclear programme which it says is for civilian use (and none to Israel).
-------------------------------------------
I wonder whether Israel would like to apologise to the Israeli journalist, Mr Vannattu (sp?), who they jailed for many years for asserting that they had nuclear capabilities?
I can see Iran laughing its socks off at this, and the West's insistences on no nuclear proliferation being seriously weakened, if not destroyed.
Yesterday, during his first official visit to Berlin, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert revealed in a tv interview and in an apprent reversal of decades-old secrecy policies, that Israel has the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal.
This raised a firestorm in Israel from both right and left-wing parties, with opposition lawmakers accusing Olmert, whose popularity had already slipped due to the engagements with Lebanon, of incompetency and undermining Israel's campaign for Western nations to curb the atomic ambitions of its arch-foe, Iran.
Independent analysts believe Israel has between 80-200 nuclear warheads since the late 1960s, which Israel has refused to discuss under an 'ambiguity' policy aimed at fending off regional foes and avoiding an arms race. This reticence is a major grievance for Arabs and Iran alike, which see a double standard in Western calls for Tehran to accept checks on a nuclear programme which it says is for civilian use (and none to Israel).
-------------------------------------------
I wonder whether Israel would like to apologise to the Israeli journalist, Mr Vannattu (sp?), who they jailed for many years for asserting that they had nuclear capabilities?
I can see Iran laughing its socks off at this, and the West's insistences on no nuclear proliferation being seriously weakened, if not destroyed.