Gulf Insider

Rubio: ‘Most Of The World Assesses’ That Israel Has Nuclear Weapons

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday was asked whether Israel has nuclear weapons and acknowledged that “most of the world assesses that they do,” but also reaffirmed the US policy of not acknowledging the existence of Israel’s nuclear stockpile and secret weapons program. Rubio made the comments when being questioned by Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX), who recently led a letter to the State Department asking for answers about Israel’s nuclear weapons program. Rubio’s State Department responded by referring the group of Democratic lawmakers to the government of Israel. “I have to say, Mr. Secretary, that’s a very bizarre response,” Castro told Rubio at a congressional hearing. Castro then asked Rubio if he could tell the American people whether or not Israel has nukes. “You know that that’s a question we don’t, they’ve never acknowledged to have a nuclear program, people can have, as you know, an open source and other reporting suspicions about what they possess. If we’re speaking frankly, I think most of the world asseses that they do,” Rubio said. “But they’ve never acknowledged that publicly, and as a feature of our foreign policy, for a variety of reasons, we don’t discuss it that way either,” he added. Castro expressed […]