Original Title
Archives Show UK Helped Israel Get Nuclear Bomb
BBC News
8-7-5
Britain secretly sold Israel a key ingredient for its nuclear programme
in 1958, according to official documents obtained by BBC News.
"It is very surprising to me we were not told because we shared information
about the nuclear bomb very closely with the British."
--Former US defence secretary Robert McNamara
"They just seemed to be concerned with making a bit of money."
--Former Conservative defence and foreign office minister Lord Gilmour
"The Israeli project is much too live an issue for us to get mixed
up in it again."
--Sir Hugh Stephenson
Papers in the British National Archives show a deal was done to export 20
tonnes of heavy water for about £1.5m. This was vital for plutonium
production at the top-secret Dimona nuclear reactor in Israel's Negev desert.
No "peaceful use only" condition was placed on its use. Officials
said imposing one would be "over zealous". Ministers in Harold
Macmillan's government were unaware of the deal. It was also kept
secret from the US.
In one of the documents Foreign Office official Donald Cape
concluded: "On the whole I would prefer not to mention this to the
Americans." Washington had refused to supply heavy water to Israel
without a guarantee it would only be used for peaceful means. US President
John F Kennedy's defence secretary from 1961, Robert McNamara,
told BBC News he was "astonished" by the cover-up. "It is
very surprising to me we were not told because we shared information about
the nuclear bomb very closely with the British..The fact Israel was trying
to develop a nuclear bomb should not have come as any surprise. But that
Britain should have supplied it with heavy water was indeed a surprise to
me."
The heavy water - surplus from a consignment bought from Norway
in 1956 - was shipped from a British port to Israel. Officials presented
it as a deal between Norway and Israel. Former Conservative defence and
foreign office minister Lord Gilmour told BBC News the revelations were
"quite extraordinary".
The civil servants involved must have known Israel would use the heavy water
to develop a nuclear bomb, he added. "They just seemed to be concerned
with making a bit of money." By the time Israel asked the UK for more
heavy water in 1961, the existence of the Dimona reactor and a probable
nuclear weapons programme had been exposed by the Daily Express newspaper,
leading the Foreign Office to block the sale, the papers show. Sir Hugh
Stephenson wrote: "I am quite sure we should not agree to this sale.
"The Israeli project is much too live an issue for us to get mixed
up in it again."
While Israel has not publicly conducted a nuclear test and does not admit
or deny having nuclear weapons, it has not signed the Nuclear Non-proliferation
Treaty.
This means the International Atomic Energy Agency does not have the power
to inspect Israeli nuclear facilities.
The Israelis say that will not change as long as they feel threatened by
countries in the Middle East.
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