One Apartheid State to another ─ nuclear-armed and dangerous

From the Guardian edited excerpts with comment by Carolyn Bennett
In the era of apartheid, South Africa was years away from building nuclear weapons. Apartheid Israel apparently was not and was more than willing to sell these weapons to apartheid South Africa. This deadly deal, the countries dubbed “the Jericho project codenamed Chalet.” So says a new book reported in the Guardian.

Previously secret South African documents uncovered in research by American academic Sasha Polakow-Suransky (reported today in The Guardian) show a close “nuclear” relationship between Israel and South Africa. That Israel offered to sell nuclear warheads to South Africa’s apartheid regime. The declassified documents make clear also, according to The Guardian, that Israel possesses and has for a long time possessed nuclear weapons despite its persistent policy of “‘ambiguity’” ─ neither affirming nor denying possession of nuclear weapons.

“‘Top secret’ minutes of meetings in 1975 between Israeli and South African senior officials reveal that PW Botha, South Africa’s minister of defense at the time asked Israel for the warheads (Jericho missiles fitted with nuclear weapons)” ; and that then-Israeli minister of defense Shimon Peres (currently Israel’s president) offered Botha the weapons ‘in three sizes.’ These defense ministers also bound their countries with a “military ties” agreement sworn to secrecy ─ the agreement contained a sinister clause sealing in secrecy “‘the very existence of this agreement.’”

Earlier revelations lacked evidentiary proof of Israel’s blood-drenched mendacity. After the collapse of apartheid, a former South African naval commander, Dieter Gerhardt, said there had been an agreement between Israel and South Africa called Chalet that involved an offer by the Jewish state to arm eight Jericho missiles with ‘special warheads.’ Gerhardt said these were atomic bombs.

Documents seized by Iranian students from the U.S. embassy in Tehran after the 1979 revolution revealed the Shah of Iran had expressed to Israel his country’s interest in developing nuclear arms, but the South African documents confirm that Israel was in a position to arm Jericho missiles with nuclear warheads. Now there is documentary evidence.


Sources and notes
“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 in Washington for The Guardian-UK), May 24, 2010, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/23/israel-south-africa-nuclear-weapons; Sasha Polakow-Suransky’s book is The Unspoken Alliance Israel’s Secret Relationship with Apartheid South Africa, official release May 25, 2010, http://www.randomhouse.com/author/results.pperl?authorid=79855; Sasha Polakow-Suransky holds a doctorate in modern history.
“Jericho,” according to Wikipedia, “is a general designation given to the Israeli ballistic missiles, a name taken from the first development contract signed between Israel and Dassault [French aerospace firm that builds Mirage and Rafale families of fighters and Falcon business jets] in 1963, with the codename as a reference to [bible story city called Jericho].” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jericho_(missile)
Britannica
Dassault Industries is a French company with major aerospace-related subsidiaries specializing in the production of military and civil aircraft; computer-based design, manufacturing, and product-management systems; and aviation simulators. Its primary subsidiary, founded by French aircraft designer Marcel Dassault at the end of World War II, is Dassault Aviation, which adopted its current name in 1990. Headquarters are in Vaucresson, France.

Al Jazeera
Update Iran and West
In a letter to the United Nation’s nuclear watchdog IAEA, Iran describes its nuclear swap deal with Turkey and Brazil as a ‘breakthrough.’ Signed by Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization chief, Ali Akbar Salehi, the letter applauds the move to send 1,200kg of its low-enriched uranium to Turkey in exchange for nuclear fuel. Without comment on the deal, the IAEA said it would convey Iran’s letter to the United States, France and Russia (part of the “Vienna Group”). Western powers believe Iran wants highly enriched uranium to make an atomic weapon. Tehran says its program is designed simply to meet its civilian energy needs. [“Iran notifies IAEA over atomic deal,” May 24, 2010, Al Jazeera, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2010/05/20105249542504394.html]