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Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has dismissed the urging of a former premier and rival for a change in the nation’s policy toward nuclear weapons.
Sharon is said to oppose a proposal by former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to end Israel’s policy of nuclear ambiguity. For nearly 40 years, Israel has refused to confirm or deny that it has nuclear weapons.
Western intelligence sources assert that Israel has the capability of deploying between 100 and 200 nuclear weapons. For its part, the Israeli government has pledged that it will not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons in the Middle East.
Netanyahu is said to have concluded that Iran, with the help of Russia, is on the verge of developing nuclear weapons, an assessment shared by many intelligence analysts in Israel. Such a development would erode Israel’s deterrence, he said.
Israeli military intelligence has assessed that Tehran could achieve nuclear capability by 2005.
The former prime minister made the assertion in a private forum. Later, Netanyahu released a statement that read, “I have expressed in a closed discussion a general view that if Iran threatens us with weapons of mass destruction, then Israel must be ready and consider different possibilities for defense.”
The answer, Netanyahu argues, is for Israel to make it clear that it has nuclear weapons. Israel would then demonstrate that it has the capability to respond to any Iranian nuclear first strike.
Russia and Iran plan to enter negotiations for the purchase of a second nuclear reactor by Tehran. Russia is building Iran’s first nuclear reactor at Bushehr in an $800 million project.
In Washington, CIA Director George Tenet told Congress that Iran has an ambitious program to obtain nuclear weapons. Tenet said Iran was obtaining advanced technology from China and Russia for both nuclear weapons and missile delivery systems.
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