Satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press reveal a large construction project taking place at a secretive Israeli nuclear facility near the city of Dimona. The Shimon Peres Negev Nuclear Research Center is home to laboratories that are used to obtain weapons-grade plutonium for Israel’s undeclared nuclear bombs.
The pictures show what AP describes as a “dig about the size of a soccer field” near where the facility’s reactor is located. Israel did not respond to requests for a comment on the images.
The images first surfaced last week, and Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif pointed out the hypocrisy in Western leaders who ignore Israel’s secretive nuclear weapons program while obsessively focusing on Iran’s civilian nuclear program that is subject to stringent inspections. Zarif described the Dimona facility as the region’s only “nuclear bomb factory.”
Israeli officials are also constantly accusing Iran of having a secret nuclear weapons program when it is Israel that is secretly making nuclear bombs. The images come as Israel is warning against a revival of the Iran nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA.
Because the JCPOA does not last forever, Israel claims it will lead to a nuclear-armed Iran. But that ignores the fact that Iran is a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which forbids it from ever obtaining nuclear weapons. Israel, on the other hand, refuses to sign the NPT.
Estimates put Israel’s nuclear arsenal at somewhere between 90 and 300 nuclear warheads.
Is there really any need to use the word “secretive”? How about ignored?
Yes. All military nuclear programs are secretive.
Not whether they have them or not. And does anyone think Israel does NOT have nukes?
If Israel bombed a site like this in Iran people in the U.S. would applaud for weeks on end. Does Iran have a right to a precision strike on this facility? It is a WMD weapons site that is designed to be used against Iran, it more than meets Israel’s definition of self-defense.
“It is the mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to erase Israel from the map of the region” — Grand Ayatola Khamenei, Jan 2001. Thousands of Iranian chant “Death to Israel!” “Death to Israel!” is printed on Iranian missiles. Soleimani boasted of helping Hezbollah in the 2006 war against Israel. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei offered to help anyone willing to attack Israel. That’s war mongering!
Israel wants good relations with Iran. Israel wants to buy Iranian oil & Israel wants to sell Israeli goods to Iran.
So the Iranians are just as much warmongers as the Israelis, except they less frequently do anything about it? OK, if you say so (actually, you don’t say so, you just copy and paste your pre-canned talking points over and over like a marketing spammer, but whatever).
Israel does not have the Bomb, they have done a great job of making it seem as if they have it, without saying so. Its media and anti Israel scam.The only bombs they make in Dimona are convention up to 1000 LB bombs, some media sources say that they are working on 2000 Lb bomb that could penetrate very deep in to the ground.The F-35 could carry up to 9 ,2000 LB bombs. Using Arial refueling it could make the round trip to the Iran nuclear facilities.
You have to update your material. Iran can’t sell their oil. Although Israel probably wouldn’t face our wrath as much as, say, Venezuela if they did buy Iranian oil.