Olmert appears to admit Israel possesses nuclear weapons

DPA
Dec. 11, 2006

Jerusalem- In an unprecedented move at odds with 40 years of deliberate ambiguity, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert appeared to admit Monday that Israel possesses nuclear weapons, when he included the country in a list of nuclear states.

In an interview with Germany's Sat 1 television, an excerpt of which was broadcast in Israel, the prime minister was asked whether Israel's nuclear arsenal - which until now it has never publicly admitted to having - undermined the West's objections to a nuclear
Iran.

"Israel is a democracy and does not threaten anyone ... Iran explicitly, openly and publicly threatens to wipe Israel off the map," an agitated Olmert replied.

"Can you say that this is the same level, when they are aspiring to have nuclear weapons, as America, France, Israel and Russia?" he asked, in remarks immediately seized on by some Israeli commentators as being an admission that the Jewish state does have nuclear arsenal.

Although long-suspected of possessing nuclear weapons, Israel has never openly confirmed these suspicions, saying only that it would not be the first power to introduce atomic weapons to the Middle East.

Shortly after the Olmert interview was broadcast in Israel, state television quoted officials in the prime minister's office as saying that Olmert, when mentioning America, France, Israel and Russia, was referring to democratic countries, and not to nuclear ones.