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08-11-2023
MOSCOW: Russia’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday that a remark by an Israeli junior minister who appeared to express openness to the idea of Israel carrying out a nuclear strike on Gaza had raised a huge number of questions.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday suspended Heritage Minister Amihay Eliyahu, from a far-right party in the coalition government, from cabinet meetings “until further notice”.
Asked in a radio interview about a hypothetical nuclear option, Eliyahu had replied: “That’s one way.”
“This has raised a huge number of questions,” Maria Zakharova, Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman, was quoted as saying by state RIA news agency.
Zakharova said the main issue was that Israel appeared to have admitted that it had nuclear weapons.
Israel does not publicly acknowledge it has nuclear weapons though the Federation of American Scientists estimates Israel has about 90 nuclear warheads.
“Question number one, it turns out that we are hearing official statements about the presence of nuclear weapons?” Zakharova said.
If so, she said, then where are the International Atomic Energy Agency and international nuclear inspectors?
Eliyahu remark drew condemnation from around the Arab world, scandalized mainstream Israeli broadcasters, was deemed “objectionable” by a U.S. official, and Iran called for a swift international response.
“The UN Security Council and the International Atomic Energy Agency must take immediate and uninterrupted action to disarm this barbaric and apartheid regime. Tomorrow is late,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said on platform X on Monday.
Israel was the sixth nation in the world to acquire nuclear weapons. More than four decades after the beginning of its nuclear program, it remains an undeclared nuclear weapon power. After the May 1998 tests by India and Pakistan, it is the only nuclear weapon state never to have tested. The ambiguity of its nuclear option is rooted in the geopolitics and the volatile nature of the Middle East. Since its inception, the program has been shrouded in secrecy with hardly any concrete details emerging. Then in October 1986, the Sunday Times published details of Israel’s undeclared nuclear program, based on information and photographs supplied by Mordechai Vanunu, who had worked as a nuclear technician at Israel’s secret Dimona complex. The revelations were credible and detailed, and for the first time were linked to an identifiable source. Vanunu’s disclosures have changed everything, in the sense that it is no longer possible to maintain that Israel does not have nuclear weapons. In the aftermath of the disclosures, there was a flurry of articles examining Israel’s nuclear option and the credibility of its ambiguous posture. In this study, Israel’s nuclear policy and the costs and benefits of such a policy are examined. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
