[News] Israel offered to sell South Africa nuclear weapons - admission: they have them to sell

[Anti-Imperialist News]

  Revealed: how Israel offered to sell South Africa nuclear weapons

*Exclusive:* Secret apartheid-era papers give first official evidence of 
Israeli nuclear weapons

    *
      Chris McGreal <http://www.theguardian.com/profile/chrismcgreal> in
      Washington
    * The Guardian <http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian>, Sunday 23
      May 2010
    * *http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/may/23/israel-south-africa-nuclear-weapons*


The secret military agreement signed by Shimon Peres, now president of 
Israel, and P W Botha of South Africa. Photograph: Guardian

Secret South African documents reveal that Israel 
<http://www.theguardian.com/world/israel> offered to sell nuclear 
warheads to the apartheid regime, providing the first official 
documentary evidence 
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/23/israel-south-africa-nuclear-documents> 
of the state's possession of nuclear weapons 
<http://www.theguardian.com/world/nuclear-weapons>.

The "top secret" minutes of meetings between senior officials from the 
two countries in 1975 show that South Africa 
<http://www.theguardian.com/world/africa>'s defence minister, PW Botha, 
asked for the warheads and Shimon Peres, then Israel's defence minister 
and now its president, responded by offering them "in three sizes". The 
two men also signed a broad-ranging agreement governing military ties 
between the two countries that included a clause declaring that "the 
very existence of this agreement" was to remain secret.

The documents, uncovered by an American academic, Sasha 
Polakow-Suransky, in research for a book on the close relationship 
between the two countries, provide evidence that Israel has nuclear 
weapons despite its policy of "ambiguity" in neither confirming nor 
denying their existence.

The Israeli authorities tried to stop South Africa 
<http://www.theguardian.com/world/southafrica>'s post-apartheid 
government declassifying the documents at Polakow-Suransky's request and 
the revelations will be an embarrassment, particularly as this week's 
nuclear non-proliferation talks in New York focus on the Middle East.

They will also undermine Israel's attempts to suggest that, if it has 
nuclear weapons, it is a "responsible" power that would not misuse them, 
whereas countries such as Iran cannot be trusted.

A spokeswoman for Peres today said the report was baseless and there 
were "never any negotiations" between the two countries. She did not 
comment on the authenticity of the documents.

South African documents show that the apartheid-era military wanted the 
missiles as a deterrent and for potential strikes against neighbouring 
states.

The documents show both sides met on 31 March 1975. Polakow-Suransky 
writes in his book published in the US this week, The Unspoken Alliance: 
Israel's secret alliance with apartheid South Africa. At the talks 
Israeli officials "formally offered to sell South Africa some of the 
nuclear-capable Jericho missiles in its arsenal".

Among those attending the meeting was the South African military chief 
of staff, Lieutenant General RF Armstrong. He immediately drew up a memo 
in which he laid out the benefits of South Africa obtaining the Jericho 
missiles but only if they were fitted with nuclear weapons.

The memo, marked "top secret" and dated the same day as the meeting with 
the Israelis, has previously been revealed but its context was not fully 
understood because it was not known to be directly linked to the Israeli 
offer on the same day and that it was the basis for a direct request to 
Israel. In it, Armstrong writes: "In considering the merits of a weapon 
system such as the one being offered, certain assumptions have been 
made: a) That the missiles will be armed with nuclear warheads 
manufactured in RSA (Republic of South Africa) or acquired elsewhere."

But South Africa was years from being able to build atomic weapons. A 
little more than two months later, on 4 June, Peres and Botha met in 
Zurich. By then the Jericho project had the codename Chalet.

The top secret minutes of the meeting record that: "Minister Botha 
expressed interest in a limited number of units of Chalet subject to the 
correct payload being available." The document then records: "Minister 
Peres said the correct payload was available in three sizes. Minister 
Botha expressed his appreciation and said that he would ask for advice." 
The "three sizes" are believed to refer to the conventional, chemical 
and nuclear weapons.

The use of a euphemism, the "correct payload", reflects Israeli 
sensitivity over the nuclear issue and would not have been used had it 
been referring to conventional weapons. It can also only have meant 
nuclear warheads as Armstrong's memorandum makes clear South Africa was 
interested in the Jericho missiles solely as a means of delivering 
nuclear weapons.

In addition, the only payload the South Africans would have needed to 
obtain from Israel was nuclear. The South Africans were capable of 
putting together other warheads.

Botha did not go ahead with the deal in part because of the cost. In 
addition, any deal would have to have had final approval by Israel's 
prime minister and it is uncertain it would have been forthcoming.

South Africa eventually built its own nuclear bombs, albeit possibly 
with Israeli assistance. But the collaboration on military technology 
only grew over the following years. South Africa also provided much of 
the yellowcake uranium that Israel required to develop its weapons.

The documents confirm accounts by a former South African naval 
commander, Dieter Gerhardt -- jailed in 1983 for spying for the Soviet 
Union. After his release with the collapse of apartheid, Gerhardt said 
there was an agreement between Israel and South Africa called Chalet 
which involved an offer by the Jewish state to arm eight Jericho 
missiles with "special warheads". Gerhardt said these were atomic bombs. 
But until now there has been no documentary evidence of the offer.

Some weeks before Peres made his offer of nuclear warheads to Botha, the 
two defence ministers signed a covert agreement governing the military 
alliance known as Secment. It was so secret that it included a denial of 
its own existence: "It is hereby expressly agreed that the very 
existence of this agreement... shall be secret and shall not be 
disclosed by either party".

The agreement also said that neither party could unilaterally renounce it.

The existence of Israel's nuclear weapons programme was revealed by 
Mordechai Vanunu to the Sunday Times in 1986. He provided photographs 
taken inside the Dimona nuclear site and gave detailed descriptions of 
the processes involved in producing part of the nuclear material but 
provided no written documentation.

Documents seized by Iranian students from the US embassy in Tehran after 
the 1979 revolution revealed the Shah expressed an interest to Israel in 
developing nuclear arms. But the South African documents offer 
confirmation Israel was in a position to arm Jericho missiles with 
nuclear warheads.

Israel pressured the present South African government not to declassify 
documents obtained by Polakow-Suransky. "The Israeli defence ministry 
tried to block my access to the Secment agreement on the grounds it was 
sensitive material, especially the signature and the date," he said. 
"The South Africans didn't seem to care; they blacked out a few lines 
and handed it over to me. The ANC government is not so worried about 
protecting the dirty laundry of the apartheid regime's old allies."

-- 
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863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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