Israel Has Nearly 300 Atomic Warheads: Report

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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.