The European Union has been cooperating furtively with Israel’s nuclear industry for at least six years. An internal document that I recently obtained states that an accord on “joint and cooperative initiatives relevant for the peaceful use of nuclear energy” was signed between the EU and Israel in 2008. “This is a discreet agreement that has not been given publicity,” the paper adds. The document (published below) was drawn up ahead of an October 2013 visit to Israel by Antonio Tajani, then Italy’s member of the European Commission. It is not hard to understand why the Union wishes to keep this cooperation “discreet.” The agreement was reached with Israel’s Atomic Energy Commission — the body that runs the Dimona reactor, where Israel’s nuclear weapons were developed. Israel introduced nuclear weapons to the Middle East and has refused to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). It has refused to permit international inspection of all its nuclear activities. In 2006, Ehud Olmert...

(video from Press TV in April) 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. more

From Socialist Worker (US) Former Israeli nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu became a hero of antiwar and anti-nuclear activists around the world when he acted on his conscience in 1986 to reveal the details of Israel's arsenal of nuclear weaponry. Shortly thereafter, he was kidnapped by Israeli secret service agents and taken to Israel, where he spent 18 years in prison. Since 2004, Vanunu has lived under a highly restrictive house arrest. In early May, Vanunu sent a letter to Israeli officials requesting the revocation of his citizenship under a new Israeli law that authorizes the rescinding of citizenship to those convicted of "espionage" or "treason." The law, proposed by the hardline party of Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and passed in March, was intended to target Israel's Arab citizens by requiring them to take a loyalty oath or face revocation of citizenship. In the letter that reprinted here, Vanunu explains why this law should compel Israel t...

If anyone had any doubts about the duplicitous and hypocritical nature of US and western policy regarding the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, news from Israel's Army Radio should help clear things up. According to the radio station a secret document has been drawn up between the US and Israel guaranteeing the transfer of nuclear material and technology to Israel from the US. Obama and Netanyahu are meeting in Washington today where they will no doubt refine their plans too bring nuclear winter to Iran. Israel's Army Radio reported on Wednesday that the United States has sent Israel a secret document committing to nuclear cooperation between the two countries. According to Army Radio, the U.S. has reportedly pledged to sell Israel materials used to produce electricity, as well as nuclear technology and other supplies, despite the fact that Israel is not a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. more

Israel's not-so-secret nuclear facilities at Damona targeted by Iranian missiles. "Even if one American or Zionist missile hits our country, before the dust settles, Iranian missiles will blow up the heart of Israel," the official IRNA news agency quoted Mojtaba Zolnour as saying. He is a deputy representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the elite Guards force. Iranian officials have also in the past said the country would retaliate in case of any Israeli or U.S attack on it. Earlier this year, a senior commander said Iranian missiles could reach Israeli nuclear sites. Israel is believed to be the only nuclear-armed Middle East state. more

The Turkish president has condemned Western countries' focus on Iran's nuclear program, stressing that the world should deal with Israel's nuclear weapons instead. Turkey's "Radikal" newspaper on Sunday reported that Recep Tayyip Erdogan's strong comments against Israel's nuclear program was similar to his "one minute" stance in Davos in January when he walked out of a televised debate with his Israeli counterpart Shimon Peres. Erdogan told reporters in New York that Iran's nuclear program is not aimed at "military ends". The Turkish president noted that Israel has "nuclear weapons" and has used "phosphorous bombs" against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. "Why these are not on the agenda? It is always Iran…" Erdogan told reporters in New York. "If only Iran is put on the world agenda, then we may neglect other issues such as the Gaza [conflict] that should be addressed," he said. more

Zbigniew Brzezinski, the former US national security adviser, has suggested that the US might shoot down Israeli fighters crossing 'our' airspace to attack Iranian nuclear sites - he was referring to Iraq's airspace of course. It is difficult to envisage such a scenario given that Israel is the US's watchdog in the Middle East, kept armed to the teeth precisely in order to do this sort of dirty work for the Americans. This news comes after the announcement of joint Israel/US military exercises in the Mediterranean aimed at countering imagined missile strikes on Israel. Zbigniew Brzezinski, the former national security adviser to U.S. President Jimmy Carter, said on Sunday that U.S. forces should forcibly prevent the Israel Air Force from reaching Iran to strike its nuclear facilities. In an interview with news Web site the Daily Beast, Brzezinski said that the U.S. forces were "not exactly impotent little babies," saying that Israel forces have "to fly o...

The general conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has passed a resolution condemning Israel over its secretive nuclear weapons programme for the first time since 1991. The IAEA called on Tel Aviv to accede to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and to put its entire nuclear programme under IAEA inspections. Israel is the only country in the Middle East that is not a signatory to the NPT and therefore accepts only limited IAEA inspections. more

US Vice President Joe Biden today gave Israel the green light for an attack on Iran. It appears Obama's warm words to the Iranian people was merely the old soft cop routine - Biden does the dirty work. From the NYTimes Plunging squarely into one of the most sensitive issues in the Middle East, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. suggested on Sunday that the United States would not stand in the way of Israeli military action aimed at the Iranian nuclear program.

The looming crisis in US/Israel relations is all over the front of Israeli newspaper Haaretz today. ShinBet says there is 'no chance of peace' as long as Hamas continues to rule Gaza while Netanyahu gives the US until the end of the year to stop Iran's alleged bid to become nuclear-armed to counter Israel's aggression in the region. Hamas is not impressed with Obama, commenting : Hamas' spokesperson in Gaza, Fauzi Barhoum, said on Tuesday that the Islamist organization is disappointed in the positions expressed on Monday by President Barack Obama during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to the White House.

Israel's Arab 'partner', Egypt, may be enriching weapons-grade uranium or have access to a source. It will be interesting to hear what the Zionists have to say about this. They don't want to fall out (excuse the pun) with Mubarak but on the other hand they want to maintain their regional monopoly on nukes. Egypt is building a nuclear power station and enriched uranium is a by-product of the industry. Egypt announced yesterday that it was appointing WorleyParsons as the lead contractor for the project after negotiations with US firm Bechtel collapsed. In 2008 Egypt signed a deal with Russia for the transfer of nuclear know-how. The country also has nuclear co-operation agreements with China, France and Kazakhstan. VIENNA — U.N. nuclear inspectors have found traces of highly enriched uranium in Egypt, the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a report obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press. Dated May 5, the restricted report said IAEA inspectors detected the pa...

Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's extreme-right foreign minister, has told the Italy's Berlusconi that the west should give Iran three months to respond to diplomatic overtures... or it's war: Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Tuesday told Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi that the West should give Iran three months to respond to diplomatic overtures regarding its contentious nuclear program. If within three months Iran has still not responded, Lieberman said, "action must be taken." The foreign minister also asked Berlusconi to implore Russia on his visit there next month to cut off ties with the militant Hamas and Hezbollah organizations, which have close ties to Iran. more

Iran is now running 7,000 centrifudges and has the technology to produce 'more accurate' ones. Israel will be working over its war plans . Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will inaugurate the country's first nuclear fuel production complex later on Thursday, an Iranian official told Reuters. "This is the first nuclear fuel complex ... 100 percent Iranian and the president will inaugurate this," said Vajihollah Asadi, a manager at the complex near the central town of Isfahan. He said the plant would produce fuel for Iran's Arak heavy water reactor.... ..."Today Iran practically proved that its (nuclear) fuel cycle has been completed and naturally suspension of uranium enrichment cannot be discussed with Iran." Reuters

Haaretz reports today that Israel is working on the assumption that the only thing holding back the Iran from achieving military nuclear capacity is the making of the political decision to proceed. Presumably this is what they told the Americans last week when the chiefs of staff of he two countries' armed forces met in Washington. The US chief of staff said in early March he thought Iran had enough fissile material to make a bomb, but it would not be with 'weapon-grade' uranium. Military Intelligence head Amos Yadlin warned on Wednesday that Iran had "crossed the technological threshold" for making a nuclear weapon. He also said that the Islamic Republic had finished developing surface-to-surface missiles that can carry nuclear warheads. Maj. Gen. Yadlin made the comments during a briefing to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. Yadlin said achieving a military nuclear capacity "was mainly dependent on a political decision by Iran.

Russia has confirmed that the persistent rumour it is selling Iran a modern air-defence system is true, and it has the Israelis worried. This is probably not disconnected to the news yesterday from the neo-con Washington Times that Israel is now shifting towards the ballistic missile option as opposed to an attempted air strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. The S-300 system is capable of tracking and striking multiple targets simultaneously. It would be nice to think the Iranians could reverse-engineer the system and send some over to Gaza for the resistance, or then again just some better anti-tank weapons could do the trick and hand-held 'stinger-like' anti-aircraft weapons - used against the soviets to great effect in Afghanistan many years ago. Russian news agencies reported on Wednesday that a top defense official confirmed Russia had indeed signed a contract to sell S-300 air-defense missiles to Iran, but that none of the weapons had been delivered. Russian officia...

The head of the US military thinks Iran has enough fissile material to make a bomb. But then again this is from the same people that told us Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Nevertheless the news will be making the Israelis sweat, which is no bad thing. The admiral thinks it would be a 'very bad outcome for the region and the world'. Why? Surely it would create a balance of power in the region which currently only has one nuclear power - Israel. Bush apparently managed to stop Israel from trying to hit Iran's perfectly legal nuclear power facilities and this latest 'news' may portend a ratcheting up of the sabre rattling by the west and its watchdog Israel. An article on today's Dow Jones Marketwatch site talks of oil going up to $300 a barrel on the basis of pent-up demand in India and China waiting to be unleashed. That seems unlikely - but if Israel attacks Iran, well that would be something altogether different. Some commentators believe that this is r...