Nixon era urged Israel to declare nukes

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-06-26 07:54

WASHINGTON: Inside the Nixon administration four decades ago, American officials weighed options to pressure Israel to declare that it had a nuclear weapons program.

US officials concluded Israel was "actively working to improve its capability to produce nuclear weapons on short notice".

In an unsigned National Security Council (NSC) memo, prepared sometime between April 1969 and March 1970, officials worried that the program might make elusive peace with the Arabs even harder to attain.

The memorandum, part of a collection of memos and tape recordings released on Tuesday by the Nixon Presidential Library, shows efforts to get Israel to sign the 1968 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. This would have required Israel to open itself to international inspection and dismantle any nuclear weapons program.

Israel resisted, which the memorandum anticipated, "because Israel views its nuclear option on the NPT as an integral part of its national security". Israel would not be easily influenced, the unsigned memorandum predicted.

The treaty requires all but five states - the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France - not to develop nuclear weapons. A total of 189 countries are parties to the treaty.

With little sign of progress toward a peace agreement on the horizon, "Israel's leaders have probably decided Israel cannot afford to surrender the nuclear option," the memo said.

In fact, the document added, Israel preferred to keep the Arabs guessing as to its power to deter attack, while the program provided bargaining power in negotiating a settlement.

But the longer Israel would hold out against signing the treaty, it also would reduce prospects for settling the Arab-Israeli dispute, the memorandum said.

"We must be prepared whether to make this a crunch issue with Israel and to make it clear that if Israel elects to go the nuclear route it would cause a fundamental change in the US-Israeli relationship."

(China Daily 06/26/2009 page11)