United Nations — A U.N. report on Israel’s nuclear capability said Monday that the country has the ability to produce and deliver nuclear bombs and warheads but there is no confirmation it actually has any.

The report, by the U.N. Institute for Disarmament Research, was prepared for the 40th General Assembly session in the fall.

It said Israel has the capability, at its Dimona nuclear reactor in the Negev desert, to produce plutonium for a bomb and estimated that by 1985 Israel “possessed enough separated plutonium to manufacture 15 to 20 nuclear warheads.”

The report quoted unidentified experts as saying Israel was “capable of assembling a number of nuclear devices within weeks of perhaps even days.”

It said the fact that Israel had not tested any nuclear device means little because it now is possible “to be assured that a given type of bomb would work without prior test detonation.”

It quoted unconfirmed reports last May that Israel had imported’ from the United States a number of krytons, described as “extremely high speed electronic switches that are used to provide the precise timing necessary for triggering nuclear explosions.”

“The Israeli Air Force has a nuclear weapon delivery capability,” the report said and cited the Kfir C7 attack aircraft and the Jericho MD660 and MD62 ballistic missiles, with longer-range vehicles under development.

“Israel has not acceded to requests from the Security Council and the General Assembly of the United Nations to place all its nuclear activities under international safeguards,” the report added.

‘It is to be stressed that most of the information relating to Israel’s nuclear activities is kept secret and thus the quantity and quality of available reliable information on the subject is such that it is difficult to draw definitive conclusions,” the report said.

Countries known to have nuclear weapons are the United States, Soviet Union, China, Britain, France and India. Along with Israel, those nations believed capable of building nuclear weapons are Canada, Japan, Pakistan, South Africa, West Germany, Italy, Sweden, and Switzerland.

Article extracted from this publication >>  August 30, 1985