Iran, Syria warn the world against Israel’s nuclear threat

[DaSangarTalib]

Iranian and Syrian officials warned Saturday against the threat posed by Israel's controversial nuclear programme.

Israel neither confirms nor denies having nuclear weapons. But many international experts have raised concern over the Jewish state's presence on the world's list of nuclear powers.

Israel’s nuclear capability could be considered the most secretive weapons of mass destruction programme in the world.

Visiting Syrian First Vice President Farouq Al Shara, who arrived in Tehran on Friday, and Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said that "the nuclear arms of the Quds occupier regime (Israel) and the fact that it does not join the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) as a real threat in the Middle East", state television said.

Iran, a signatory of the signed the NPT, responsible for ensuring global peaceful use of nuclear energy, has been facing mounting international pressure, headed by the United States, which claims it’s using it’s civilian nuclear programme as a guise for disgraceful preparations for a nuclear weapons program. Accusations that have been repetitively rejected by Tehran.

Also discussed during the Iran-Syrian talks, was the deteriorating situation in Iraq. The two officials urged foreign ministers of Iraq's neighbours to hold an immediate meeting to discuss ways to help restore security and stability in the war-devastated country.

Al-Shara delivered a message from the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to the Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Al Shara’s visit follows a January trip by Ahmadinejad to Damascus, Tehran's main regional ally.

• Israel’s nukes

Israel has continuously refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, aimed at preventing the spread of nuclear weapons which would endanger global security.

This Israel’s nuclear sites were never subject to inspections and the threat of sanctions by the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.

In 1952, the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission was formed and began working closely with the Israeli military.

By 1953, a process for extracting uranium found in the Negev desert was perfected and a new method of producing heavy water was developed - providing Israel with its own capability to produce some of the most important nuclear materials.

For reactor design and construction, Israel sought and received the assistance of France.

According to Washington-based website GlobalSecurity.org, a secret agreement between the two nations saw construction of the Dimona plant begin in the late 1950s.

The complex was variously described as a textile plant, an agricultural station and a metallurgical research facility until 1960, when Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion stated that it was a nuclear research centre built for "peaceful purposes".

From its early suspicions that Israel had nuclear ambitions - overflights by U-2 spy planes revealed Dimona's construction in 1958 - the United States expressed concern.

U.S. inspectors visited Israel's Dimona reactor several times in 1960s but were unable to obtain an accurate picture of the activities carried out there.

According to GlobalSecurity.org, Israelis installed false control room panels and brick over elevators and hallways that accessed certain areas of the facility.

The inspectors were able to report that there was no clear scientific research or civilian nuclear power programme justifying such a large reactor - seen as circumstantial evidence of the Israeli bomb programme - but found no evidence of "weapons-related activities".

A U.S. Central Intelligence Agency report in 1968 found that Israel had begun to produce nuclear weapons.