Carter says Israel has at least 150 atomic weapons
Mon May 26, 2008 7:01pm BST
source:
http://uk.reuters. com/article/ topNews/idUKL267 3174120080526? feedType= RSS&feedName= topNewsLONDON (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter
has said Israel holds at least 150 nuclear weapons,
the first time a U.S. president has publicly
acknowledged the Jewish state's atomic arsenal.
Asked at a news conference at Wales's Hay literary
festival on Sunday how a future U.S. president should
deal with the Iranian nuclear threat, Carter put the
risk in context by listing atomic weapons held
globally.
"The U.S. has more than 12,000 nuclear weapons, the
Soviet Union (Russia) has about the same, Great
Britain and France have several hundred, and Israel
has 150 or more. We have a phalanx of enormous
weaponry ... not only of enormous weaponry but of
rockets to deliver those missiles on a pinpoint
accuracy target," he said, according to a transcript
of his remarks.
While the existence of Israeli nuclear weapons is
widely assumed, Israeli officials have never admitted
their existence and U.S. officials have stuck to that
line in public for years.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner said Washington should
talk directly to Tehran to persuade it to drop its
nuclear ambitions.
Years of U.S. policy, including sanctions and a debate
about the possibility of military strikes, have not
persuaded Iran to abandon its ambitions to produce
enriched uranium.
President George W. Bush has branded calls for
negotiations with Iran's president as comparable to
the appeasement of Adolf Hitler before World War Two.
Carter was president from 1977 to 1981. During that
time, he helped negotiate a peace treaty between
Israel and Egypt and concluded a strategic arms
agreement with the Soviet Union.
(Editing by Ralph Boulton)
