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Report: Israel Takes its Nukes Beneath the Seas NewsMax.comIn a development that may hinder international efforts to shake Iran from its alleged nuclear weapons ambitions, Israel reportedly has adapted U.S. built cruise missiles to carry nuclear warheads aboard its fleet of submarines, according to a report in the LA Times. The Times cites senior Bush administration and Israeli officials as confirming that the region’s sole nuclear power can now launch atomic weapons from under the sea – as well as from land and air platforms. Speaking anonymously, the officials explained that they released the information in an effort to warn Israel’s enemies during tense times. However, according to the Times report, Arab diplomats and U.N. officials opined that Israel’s honing of its secret nuclear arsenal has only increased the motivation of Arab states to possess like weapons. “The presence of a nuclear program in the region that is not under international safeguards gives other countries the spur to develop weapons of mass destruction,” Nabil Fahmy, Egypt’s ambassador to the United States, told the Times. At a nonproliferation conference in Moscow in September, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, a senior Iranian official argued, “Stability cannot be achieved in a region where massive imbalances in military capabilities are maintained, particularly through the possession of nuclear weapons that allow one party to threaten its neighbors and the region.” But experts note that since Iran and other countries developed a new generation of long-range missiles, Israel’s land-based nuclear weapons became vulnerable to attack – leading that country to develop nuclear-armed submarines. “Israel could accept the idea [of partial disarmament] after two years of comprehensive peace in the Middle East,” said Ephraim Kam, deputy director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies in Tel Aviv. “Only then could we consider changing our nuclear position.” Meanwhile, the plot thickens at the negotiating tables. According to Joseph Cirincione, director of the nonproliferation program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: “You are never going to be able to address the Iranian nuclear ambitions or the issues of Egypt’s chemical weapons and possible biological weapons program without bringing Israel’s nuclear program into the mix.” Typically, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Syria criticize the U.S. and U.N. for ignoring Israel’s weapons of mass destruction while pressuring Iran to abandon its programs. For its part, Iran has steadfastly maintained that its nuclear program is strictly a peaceful venture to generate power. The U.S. officials further disclosed that the warheads were designed specifically for American-supplied Harpoon missiles, which can be launched from submarines and reach their targets using a sea-skimming cruise guidance system. Israeli and foreign defense experts on Sunday dismissed the Times' report that Israel can launch nuclear-armed Harpoon missiles from submarines -- calling it technically impossible.
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