U.S. Not Seeking Disclosure of Israeli Nuclear Arsenal

U.S. Not Seeking Disclosure of Israeli Nuclear Arsenal
Friday, Oct. 2, 2009

U.S. President Barack Obama, left, speaks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outside the White House in May. Obama's administration does not plan to pressure Israel to open its nuclear sites to international scrutiny, officials said (White House photo/Getty Images).

The Obama administration does not intend to press Israel to give international monitors access to its nuclear weapons, the Washington Times reported today (see GSN, Sept. 29).

Israel has never officially acknowledged possession of what is believed to be the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal, which is roughly estimated at between 100 and 200 warheads.

Then-U.S. President Richard Nixon and former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meier in 1969 reportedly agreed that Washington would not challenge Jerusalem on the issue. The deal -- of which there is no official accounting -- essentially means that "the United States passively [accepts] Israel's nuclear weapons status as long as Israel does not unveil publicly its capability or test a weapon," according to expert Avner Cohen.

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http://gsn.nti.org/gsn/nw_20091002_7204.php