I-61 Israel stands by denial and vague nuclear policy

Israel stands by vague nuclear policy JERUSALEM - Israel held firm Thursday to its policy of not admitting it possesses nuclear weapons, in the face of an acknowledgment from the incoming U.S. Defense Secretary that Israel has the bomb.....In his confirmation hearing before the Senate, Robert Gates explained Iran's motivation to acquire nuclear weapons.

"They are surrounded by powers with nuclear weapons — Pakistan to their east, the Russians to the north, the Israelis to the west and us in the Persian Gulf," he told the Senate committee.

Although Israel is widely assumed to have a nuclear weapons arsenal, it has stuck to its policy of ambiguity on the subject, insisting against all the evidence that it will not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons into the Middle East.