In what is seen as a rare statement of support for Israel, NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said Monday that there was no reason for Israel to surrender its alleged nuclear capabilities in the face of Iran's continued race towards nuclear power.
NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer delivers a speech during the first World Policy Conference in Evian, French Alps.
Photo: AP
Speaking at a conference in France, Scheffer said he did not believe the international community would be able to stop Iran from developing a nuclear bomb.
"I am not positive about the world being able to stop Iran from fulfilling its ambitions," he was quoted as saying.
"It is a major challenge to prevent Iran from continuing to strive to get the bomb," Scheffer said, adding that his concern was "that the Security Council, as we speak, is rather incapable of coming to further conclusions on further sanctions."
As a result, Scheffer said there was no reason for Israel to give up its supposed nuclear capability. According to foreign media reports, Israel has an arsenal of several hundred nuclear bombs.
"As we all know, Israel never admits to what it has, but I do not see very many arguments for the Jewish state to abandon its potential," the NATO chief said. "What is as dangerous is the missile technology which [Iran] is also developing at a fast pace."
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Photo: AP
Senior Israeli defense officials said that Scheffer's remarks regarding Israel's right to maintain a nuclear capability was a "precedent" and sent a message to Iran that NATO stood by Israel, which has been repeatedly threatened by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
"This is very significant," said one senior official involved in the Israeli-NATO dialogue. "It doesn't mean that NATO will fight alongside with us if it comes to that, but this type of remark by the head of NATO does send a message throughout the Middle East."
The officials said that relations with NATO had significantly improved in recent years and that a number of high-level conferences were scheduled to be held, for the first time, in Israel over the coming year.
Government officials in Jerusalem, meanwhile, expressed concern that Scheffer's uncertainty that the international community will be able to stop Iran from fulfilling its nuclear ambitions reflected the opinion of more and more of the international arena.
The officials, however, said it was the concern that Iran might obtain nuclear arms that led to Scheffer's comment about not seeing very many arguments for "the Jewish state to abandon its [nuclear] potential."
Noting that this was the first time someone at Scheffer's level had made such a comment about Israel's reported nuclear capability, the official said this indicated the changes that a nuclear Iran could bring on the international arena, and the acceptance of certain things that in the past were considered taboo.
For instance, the official pointed to the recent nuclear deal signed between the US and India whereby the US would sell India nuclear technology and even fuel as an example of how, in a jittery world, things that were unthinkable in the past were now possible.
India has refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and the type of deal that was just brokered between the US and India was barred after India's nuclear tests in 1974. The official also said that Sheffer's comments reflected his own opinions, and were not necessarily NATO's position.
