Monday,
June 04, 2012
BERLIN: Israel is arming submarines supplied
and largely financed by Germany
with nuclear-tipped cruise missiles, influential German news weekly Der Spiegel
reports in its issue to be published on Monday.
The magazine said in a cover story likely to touch off a debate in Germany that Berlin had until now denied any knowledge
that German submarines were being used as part of an Israeli atomic arsenal.
Israel is the Middle East’s sole if undeclared nuclear-armed power.
However, former high-ranking officials of the German defence ministry told the
magazine that the government always assumed that Israel was putting nuclear warheads
on the Dolphin-class vessels.
The article, based on a months-long probe, cited files from the foreign
ministry in Berlin indicating that the West German state was aware of the
practice as early as 1961.
Germany has already supplied
Israel
with three of the submarines in question, footing most of the bill, and another
three are to be delivered by 2017 under a recently signed contract.
Meanwhile Israel
is weighing whether to order three more, according to the report.
“The Germans can be proud to have ensured the existence of the state of Israel
for several years to come,” Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak was quoted by
Der Spiegel as saying.
The report said that Germany
hoped to see Israeli concessions on settlements and approval for the completion
of a sewage treatment plant in the Gaza Strip in exchange for the assistance.
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