US Defense Sec Says Israel Has Nuclear Weapons - Israel Waffles
Israel held firm Thursday to its policy of not admitting it possesses nuclear weapons, in the face of a clear statement from the incoming US Secretary of Defense that Israel has the bomb.In his confirmation hearing before the US Senate, Gates was explaining Iranian motivation to acquire nuclear weapons. "They are surrounded by powers with nuclear weapons - Pakistan to their east, the Russians to the north, the Israelis to the west and us in the Persian Gulf," he told the Senate committee.
Though Israel is widely assumed to have a nuclear weapons arsenal, it has stuck to its policy of ambiguity on the subject, insisting against all the evidence that it will not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons into the Middle East.
Jerusalem Post
Washington Post
