Visit Indian Travel Sites
Goa,
Kerala,
Tamil Nadu,
Andhra Pradesh,
Delhi,
Rajasthan,
Uttar Pradesh,
Himachal Pradesh,
Assam,
Sikkim,
Madhya Pradesh,
Jammu & Kashmir
Karnataka
|
Obama reaffirms Israel-US secret accord on nuke bombs | US President Barack Obama has assured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the four-decade-old
secret Israel-American accord, allowing Israel to keep a nuclear arsenal without opening it to international inspections, would continue. According to the Washington
Times, the US since 1969 has not pressured Israel to disclose its nuclear weapons
or to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which could require Israel
to give up its estimated several hundred nuclear bombs. However, Israel had been
nervous that Obama would not continue the understanding because of his strong
support for non-proliferation and priority on preventing Iran from developing
nuclear weapons. In fact, Netanyahu ’s reaction to a question last week clearly
reflected of the continuing US-Israel understanding, but it went unnoticed. "Iin
my first meeting with President Obama in Washington I received from him, and I
asked to receive from him, an itemized list of the strategic understandings that
have existed for many years between Israel and the United States on that issue.
It was not for naught that I requested, and it was not for naught that I received."
The chief nuclear understanding was reached at a summit between President Nixon
and Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir that began on Sept. 25, 1969. Avner Cohen,
author of "Israel and the Bomb", said the accord amounts to "the United States
passively accepting Israel's nuclear weapons status as long as Israel does not
unveil publicly its capability or test a weapon." The resulting policy was the
equivalent of "don't ask, don't tell." Although there is no formal record of the
agreement, the Nixon library declassified a July 19, 1969, memo on the issue.
"While we might ideally like to halt actual Israeli possession, what we really
want at a minimum may be just to keep Israeli possession from becoming an established
international fact," it said. |
|
|
|
|
|