Thirty US House Democrats have released a joint statement demanding transparency over Israel’s nuclear capabilities.
Writing to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the Democrats said the US is “fighting this war side by side with a country whose potential nuclear weapons program the United States government officially refuses to acknowledge”.
The statement stressed that Congress has a “constitutional responsibility to be fully informed about the nuclear balance in the Middle East, the risk of escalation by any party to this conflict, and the administration’s planning and contingencies for such scenarios”.
It added that a policy of “official ambiguity” about Israel makes non-proliferation in the Middle East “impossible”.
It went on to say that Iran’s decision to pursue its nuclear programme isn’t made in a “vacuum” and is a response to the “perceived capabilities of each country”.
“We ask that you hold Israel to the same standard of transparency that the United States expects from any other country that may be pursuing or retaining nuclear weapons capability,” they concluded.
Israel is believed to have nuclear weapons, but it has consistently denied this and has faced little pressure for transparency.
