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Israel tried to sell nukes to South Africa in 1970s – report
Published: 25 May, 2010, 02:46
Edited: 26 May, 2010, 00:49
TAGS: Military, Nuclear, Africa, Middle East, Politics
Documents uncovered by an American academic reportedly contain the first official evidence that Israel has nuclear weapons.
Britain’s Guardian newspaper has published the declassified papers showing that back in the 1970s Tel Aviv offered to sell atomic warheads to the apartheid regime in South Africa.
The man who revealed the documents, Sasha Polakow-Suransky, senior editor at the Foreign Affairs Magazine at the Council on Foreign Relations, told RT that he will challenge anyone in the Israeli administration who refutes his findings.
He explained to RT what exactly these documents show.
“The documents reveal that high-level discussions took place between South African defense officials and Israeli defense officials at the end of March 1975. And four days after that, on April 3, 1975, Shimon Peres, then the Defense Minister of Israel, and P. W. Botha, then the Defense Minister of South Africa, signed an agreement on secrecy relating to all military and nuclear relations between the two countries,” he said.
“Now, the other thing that happened on March 31st, 1975 that, taken together with the minutes from the meeting, was a memo written by the South African Chief of Staff to his superiors in the defense force outlining the importance of nuclear weapons to South Africa’s defense strategy with a specific focus on the Jericho missile system. Now, if you look at these two documents together, minutes from a meeting between high-level Israeli defense officials and their South African counterparts and then a memo written the same day, and then 3 days later – secrecy agreement between the defense ministers of the two countries: you put these together, and what you see is a picture of a discussion of potential transfer of nuclear weapons.”
Polakow-Suransky added, “I want to be very clear about what this does not show. This deal never came to fruition, it was never completed, the South Africans thought it was too expensive, and they were also developing their own independent nuclear program at the time. However, there is no denying that President Peres was present at some of these meetings, and that his signature is on this document. And I would challenge President Peres and anyone in the Israeli government to deny the signature on April 3rd, 1975 agreement.”
“However this does not show that there was an explicit offer to transfer nuclear materials made by Peres himself. The discussion did take place, the South Africans took it very, very seriously, seriously enough for their Chief of Staff to send it up to his superiors and talk about the benefits of nuclear weapons for South Africa.”
Read also – Documents Show that Israel Has Nuclear Weapons (and Tried to Sell Them)
25.05.2010, 02:36
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Israel have thrown so much mud at Iran that some of it has fallen back on them and is begining to stick to them too. By jumping and shouting so loudly at Iran, Israel have succeeded in bringing the gaze of the world upon themselves. However people from all over the world are now beginning to ask why Israel is treated as a special case - seemingly unbound by any international law. They also now ask why Isreal is allowed to have illegal and undeclared nuclear facilities and nuclear weapons whereas Iran, which is not even a nuclear power yet, is condemmed and demonised, and its people placed under sanctions and even threatened with military action. This issue is tremendously damaging to the credibility of the United Nations, and acts as another nail in the coffin (not that any more are required) of any US brokered middle east peace process. There will be no peace until all nations and peoples are treated equally under international law.
marge Why are you so quick to point the accusing finger at the U.S? of course, the U.S has good reason to be silent about Nuclear Israel because the U.S gave nuclear weapon technology to Israel. Now, first the Soviet Union and after that Russia knew this information. The question we need to know is why has Russia been silent on nuclear Israel? I think the revelation of this not secrete information damages Russia as much as it damages the U.S. It is clear that Russia has clearly played along with the U.S hand has chosen to be silent about nuclear Israel. Now, how do to you wish the global south would view Russia’s credibility knowing the U.S brought utter destruction to Iraq and is about the do the same to Iran in the name of controlling nuclear weapons and Russia has played along in this deceptive politics of doublespeak and double standards? Russia can be pleased with little things such as lifting U.S embargo against few Russian weapons firms, the promise of letting Russia into the WTO and before long the U.S will launch a new deadly war against Iran.
Jim, The UN and SC in particular have been damaged beyond repair. The formula is now becoming clear. Russia and China are easily handled by the U.S and its allies with number of strategies including giving China favourable trade deals, WTO, and offering similar deals to Russia. This quid pro quo is not a secret. I just saw RT interview with an American expert who praised Russia for not delivering S-300 air defence weapons to Iran so that if Israel decides to bomb Iran it can do know but if Russia delivers these advanced air defence weapons to Iran then Israel would not be able to bomb Iran! Can we , those of us from the global south, trust Russia after this? North Korea saw it and Iran sees it: today nuclear weapons are the surest source of security for countries threatened by the United States. I hope I am wrong but I do not see a nuclear world but great unrest and bleak future and Russia has failed utterly to contain U.S global military aggression and expansionism.