Israel offered to sell South Africa nuclear weapons ~ ASIAN DEFENCE

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Israel offered to sell South Africa nuclear weapons

8:51 PM ASIAN DEFENCE 1 comment

Secret South African documents reveal that Israel offered to sell nuclear warheads to the apartheid regime, providing the first official documentary evidence of the state's possession of nuclear weapons.The "top secret" minutes of meetings between senior officials from the two countries in 1975 show that South Africa's defence minister, PW Botha, asked for the warheads and Shimon Peres, then Israel's defence minister and now its president, responded by offering them "in three sizes". The two men also signed a broad-ranging agreement governing military ties between the two countries that included a clause declaring that "the very existence of this agreement" was to remain secret.

The Israeli authorities tried to stop South Africa's post-apartheid government declassifying the documents at Polakow-Suransky's request and the revelations will be an embarrassment, particularly as this week's nuclear non-proliferation talks in New York focus on the Middle East.They will also undermine Israel's attempts to suggest that, if it has nuclear weapons, it is a "responsible" power that would not misuse them, whereas countries such as Iran cannot be trusted.South Africa eventually built its own nuclear bombs, albeit possibly with Israeli assistance. But the collaboration on military technology only grew over the following years. South Africa also provided much of the yellowcake uranium that Israel required to develop its weapons.

Posted in:

1 comments:

Anonymous says:

August 8, 2010 at 3:46 PM

WTH.Where are all the BIG HIPOCRATES AND BULLIERS of this world.Everything about Isreal is evil and the funny thing is that this state and its partners are allowed to accuse and wage wars on enemy states in the name of stopping same evil it is actually committing itself.This wrold can never be a peace full place with such standards.We havent learned anything from ww2 and actually heading towards another one.UN is a joke and part of it.I think its time that Muslim states and also other non-muslim states beoming victoms of this international bullying should form global alliance.I recently saw picture of Isreali tanks targeting at under- age kids.How wud american parents would feel if they were their children.Disgrace.We still live in stone age.