Washington, DC – A group of Democrats in the US Congress has called on the State Department to break the US government's longstanding silence on Israel's nuclear capabilities. In a letter sent to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the Democrats pointed to the US-Israel war on Iran as the reason more clarity is urgently needed.

While Israel is believed to have possessed nuclear weapons since the 1960s, it maintains "a policy of nuclear opacity, never officially confirming the existence of its nuclear weapons program and arsenal," according to the Washington-based Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI). The White House has also long maintained ambiguity on the issue, despite a handful of glancing admissions.

"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," the letter, signed by 30 members of Congress, said. "We do not believe we have received that information."

"A policy of official ambiguity about the nuclear capabilities of one party to this conflict makes coherent nonproliferation policy in the Middle East impossible," the letter said, "for Iran, for Saudi Arabia, and for every other state in the region making decisions based on their perceptions of the capabilities of their neighbours."

In the letter dated May 4, the lawmakers plainly ask Rubio what nuclear weapon capabilities Israel has, as well as clear information on its warheads and launchers. They particularly focused on the Negev Nuclear Research Center in Dimona, long believed to be the core of Israel's nuclear program.

"Does Israel currently possess enrichment capabilities, and at what level?" they asked, appealing for details on both fissile material and plutonium production. The letter further asked whether Israel, which is not a signatory to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), has articulated to the US any "nuclear doctrine, red lines, or thresholds for nuclear use in the context of the current conflict with Iran."

Several former US officials, Israeli whistleblowers, and unclassified US intelligence documents have for decades shed light on Israel's alleged nuclear program. Documents show that in 1968, the CIA told then-President Lyndon B. Johnson that Israel had developed or was capable of developing a nuclear weapon. President Richard Nixon then reportedly struck an agreement with Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir in which Israel agreed not to acknowledge or test its nuclear arsenal in exchange for Washington ending oversight pressures.

The NTI estimates that Israel has 90 nuclear warheads, a plutonium stockpile of 750 to 1,110 kg, six submarines capable of launching nuclear weapons, and intermediate-range ballistic missiles capable of reaching 4,800 to 6,500 km.

The letter comes as lawmakers from both parties have increasingly questioned Washington's close ties to Israel amid the genocide in Gaza and the US-Israel war on Iran. In April, 40 Democratic senators voted in support of a bill to block the sale of military bulldozers to Israel. While the measure failed, advocates hailed the increased pressure among Democrats as "historic."

Source: www.aljazeera.com