LONDON,
May 10, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Israel, the only
nuclear power in the Middle East and the sixth country in the world to
acquire nuclear weapons, has between 200 and 300 atomic warheads.
This
estimate "is based on the production capacity of the country's
reactors," John Eldridge, editor-in-chief of Jane's Nuclear,
Biological and Chemical Defense told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on
Tuesday, April 9.
The
International Institute of Strategic Studies estimates the number of
warheads as being "up to 200".
An
unknown number of ground-to-ground missiles, comprising short range
Jericho 1 and medium range Jericho 2 missiles, forms Israel's strategic
force.
The
country also acquired three diesel-powered, Dolphin-class submarines at
the end of the 1990s.
Each
vessel, capable of spending a month underwater, has the capacity to
launch six torpedoes.
The
Washington Post has revealed that Israel has succeeded in
modifying US-made cruise missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads
to be launched from submarines.
Arsenal
Israel
has been adopting a not confirming nor denying strategy when it comes to
its nuclear arsenal.
But
the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a US advocacy group co-created by Ted
Turner, the founder of CNN and a former senator, believes Israel's
nuclear arsenal "is comparable in quality and quantity to that of
France and the United Kingdom."
Recently
declassified British documents showed London helped Israel obtain its
nuclear bomb 40 years ago.
Israel's
nuclear reactor was built with the help of the French near the town of
Dimona in the Negev Desert.
Mordechai
Vanunu, a one-time technician at the nuclear plant, served 18 years in
prison for blowing the whistle on Israel’s nuclear program.
In
an interview with the Sunday Times in 1986, he revealed evidence
that Israel possessed and produced nuclear weapons.
International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Secretary General Mohammad ElBaradei has
repeatedly asked Israel to give up its secret arsenal of nuclear weapons
to head off an arms race in the Middle East.
Israel
is not a signatory of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
US
intelligence agencies routinely omit Israel from semiannual reports to
Congress identifying countries developing weapons of mass destruction to
protect the country from any economic or military sanctions.
The
US has been spearheading an international campaign against Iran over
suspicion that its nuclear program, which Tehran insists is for
generating power, is a cover to produce weapons.
(Click
here to read the history of Israel's nuclear arsenal.)
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