By YAAKOV KATZ The Jerusalem Post 29/03/2010 00:51
www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=172014

Defense official: No plan to offer concessions regarding purported
capability.

Israel does not plan on offering any concessions regarding its purported
nuclear capability at the Nuclear Security Summit that US President Barack
Obama will host in Washington, DC, next month, a top defense official said
on Sunday.

The US and Russia announced on Friday that they would sign a new START
agreement that will reduce the nuclear arsenals in both countries by 30
percent. Following the signing of the agreement on April 8, Obama will host
the two-day Nuclear Security Summit, aimed at preventing rogue regimes and
terrorists from obtaining nuclear weapons.

According to the top defense official, Israel does not plan on announcing
any changes to its current policy of ambiguity when it comes to its nuclear
program.

"We will not change anything on this issue," the official said. "There is no
reason to wake up the bears."

Israel had initially been wary of the summit amid concern that it would be
asked to reveal details about its purported nuclear capability. Israel is
believed to have several hundred nuclear weapons, according to foreign
reports.

The Obama administration also debated whether to invite Israel to the
conference since it was assumed that Israel's presence there would put it
under pressure to put its nuclear program under international monitoring.

Not inviting Israel would have opened the administration to complaints it
would have received from mostly Arab countries about leaving Israel - the
only country in the Middle East purported to have nuclear weapons - out of
the summit.

In January, Israel was invited, and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has
confirmed that he will attend the summit in April.