London, July 7, IRNA – The UK government continues to refuse to call on Israel to declare its nuclear weapons arsenal because its capability has never been admitted.
“We are aware of the widespread assumption that Israel possesses nuclear weapons,” Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt said when asked to encourage Isreal to declare the number, type and location of its nuclear arms.
“We have always encouraged all states to be as transparent as possible about their civilian – and, where applicable, military-nuclear programs and capabilities,” Burt said in a written parliamentary reply published on Wednesday.
He reiterated the government’s implausible policy in the absence of not recognising its arsenal estimated at over 400 warheads by saying: “We continue to call on Israel to sign up to the non-proliferation treaty as a non-nuclear weapon state.”
Asked how Britain justifies having concern about Iran’s fuel program and not about Israel’s possession of nuclear weapons, Foreign Office spokesman Barry Marston told IRNA last week that the “presence of the whole range of WMDs in the Middle East is a matter of grave concern.”
“However, in Britain’s view, the most significant threat to the region is the direct threat to regional security potentially posed by a nuclear armed Iran,” Marston insisted, while ignoring Israel’s stockpile.
He claimed that it was Iran’s civilian program rather than Israel’s actual weapons that would trigger a “probable regional nuclear arms race” and was “why we are 100% committed to the vision of a Middle East WMDs free zone.”