The Hindu : 'Israel may use nuclear weapons if Iraq attacks'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 16, 2002

International

International

'Israel may use nuclear weapons if Iraq attacks'

By Atul Aneja

MANAMA (BAHRAIN) AUG. 15. Israel may retaliate with nuclear weapons if subjected to a biological weapon attack by Iraq, a report by the U.S. intelligence has said.

According to the Israeli daily, Haaretz, the U.S. intelligence, in a report to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Israeli retaliation would be calibrated and commensurate to the extent of damage that the possible use of Iraqi non-conventional weapons would cause. While Iraq may not yet possess atomic weapons, it could have significant stocks of biological and chemical weapons. Anthony Cordesman, a Fellow at the Centre for Strategic and International studies in the U.S., authored this report.

Given the threat from Iraq, Israel, in the event of a U.S. led war against Baghdad, would want to target first Iraqi missiles that can send biological or chemical weapons into Israel. That means the Iraqi Scud misses and El Hussein rockets that have been mainly deployed in the country's west will be on the hit list first. Besides, it is feared that Iraq may be developing pilotless planes to deliver non-conventional weapons. Unlike the small pilotless planes that are used for surveillance elsewhere, Iraq may be developing full-fledged remote controlled planes that can be packed with chemical and biological weapons for attack.

Iraq is reportedly modifying an Eastern European training plane and a version of the MiG-21 fighter jet for this purpose. According to the U.S. intelligence report, Israeli reaction to a non-conventional attack can take three forms. First, Israel is likely to respond by conventional weapons if an Iraqi biological weapon attack, for some reason, does not cause wide scale damage. It would, however, warn Iraq that it would be entitled to a non-conventional response, in case such attacks on the civilian population persisted.

Second, in case of a biological weapon strike on its cities, Israel would launch nuclear strikes against Iraqi cities that were not yet in the hands of the American forces that might be operating on the ground.

Third, Israel would go in for an all-out attack, in case there was an existential threat to its key cities.

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