Last week on September 9, as a collective gasp of relief over the Russia-Syria deal could be heard around the world, Foreign Policy magazine published an article revealing a 1983 CIA intelligence document stating Israel likely had a stockpile of chemical and biological weapons at the Dimona Sensitive Storage Area in the Negev Desert.
As John Kerry meets with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Geneva today to discuss the dismantling of Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile the Wall Street Journal spotlights a “ripple effect“, the focus on Israel’s nuclear program:
GENEVA—The joint U.S. Russian push to dismantle Syria’s chemical weapons is starting to have ripple effects, focusing attention on the suspected arsenal of Israel.
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But a frequent complaint among Arab countries in the region—that Israel has an undeclared but presumed nuclear-weapons program—has already resurfaced.
Syria’s government has hinted that it could raise Israel’s suspected arsenal of nuclear and other weapons as an international issue and potentially a precondition for Damascus moving ahead on the destruction of what the U.S. estimates is at least 1,000 tons of chemical agents.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has publicly stated that Syria’s program was only necessary as a defense against Israel’s vastly superior firepower.
“It’s well known that Syria has a certain arsenal of chemical weapons and the Syrians always viewed that as an alternative [response] to Israel’s nuclear weapons,” he said Tuesday.
This position could place the Obama administration in a diplomatic corner……
“The main danger of WMD is the Israel nuclear arsenal,” Syria’s ambassador to the U.N., Bashar Ja’afari, told reporters on Thursday.
Mr. Ja’afari said Israel needed to place its suspected atomic weapons under international supervision and sign the nuclear nonproliferation treaty. He said Syria wasn’t making such actions by Israel a prerequisite for Syria moving ahead and destroying its chemical weapons, but said the world must also focus on the Israeli arsenals.
“Israel has chemical weapons and nobody is speaking about it,” he said.
LA Times reports Israel also facing questions about chemical weapons:
Israel has cheered the Syrians’ promise to hand over their chemical weapons and sign the Chemical Weapons Convention, but it is increasingly worried that the international pressure building may soon focus on Israel, which has refused to ratify the treaty and is believed to possess chemical weapons.
Israel signed the Chemical Weapons Convention in 1993, but it never ratified the agreement.
Israeli officials insist that their government is willing to ratify the treaty, but only after others in the region follow suit. Syria and Egypt notably have refused to sign the accord outlawing the use of chemical weapons.
Israel’s regional enemies have insisted they need chemical weapons to counter the threat of the nuclear weapons Israel is believed to possess. No other Middle East nation is thought to have such an arsenal.
Time for Israel to get rid of CW (assuming Syria does). And get rid of nukes too.
”But a frequent complaint among Arab countries in the region—that Israel has an undeclared but presumed nuclear-weapons program—has already resurfaced.”‘
Valid complaint.
The nuke threat and it’s US umbrella is why Israel ‘gets away with’ Palestine, Gaza, bombing Lebanon as they did, bombing what they claimed was a nuke facility in Syria several yrs ago, and recently bombing inside Syria 4 times.
It likely too much to hope that US tide against taking out Syria could turn into a real world wide demand to lock down Israel and everyone’s else chemicals and nukes in the ME. But the time is ripe if enough countries will push it.
Syria should have raised israeli wmd, but they didnt. Israel love it course.
It’s past time for Israel to be honest. It’s one of the more glaring hypocrisies that we have exhibited to the rest of the world… do they/we really think that the world is so STUPID? We’ve used nukes and chem weapons, the Israelis have used chem weapons and because of this crazy, insane relationship we are both held unaccountable……….. Arab regimes (and everybody else) know both nations to be hypocrites, belligerents and yes, liars. I hope with all my heart that the hypocrisy of our relationship becomes increasingly exposed and that we will seize the chance to “come clean”.
Thanks, Annie, for this good news.
Syria has maintained for many years, whenever pressure is put it to get rid of its CW stockpile (“the poor man’s WMD”), that it would gladly do so if Israel got rid of its nuclear WMD stockpile, the same one JFK was urgently trying to stop Israel from making when he lost his life. Assad will certainly bring that up, as well as Putin perhaps, in the near future. Not only has Israel never ratified the CW ban, but it’s not signatory to the NPT, so nobody can monitor it inspect for that dangerous asset, while in contrast, Iran has signed the NPT and, as we know the result of inspections has been it has not reached the enrichment stage to have “the bomb.” Both Assad and Putin would be dumb not to bring up Israel’s WMD & CW stockpiles when Obama puts his case before the UN SC.
Just maybe, under the current situation, the main media will bring the double standard applied to Israel to the attention of Dick and Jane in view of the 80/20 grass roots protest against a strike on Syria, and the 100 to 1 calls against the strike that rang individual congress critter bells, calls often ignorant of AIPAC/ADL/Congress of Jewish Presidents/GOP Jewish branch full court press to strike Syria.