Daily Times

Sir: According to foreign media, Israel has a stockpile of 300 nuclear weapons, some of which are carried by Israeli submarines. Israel is the only nuclear power in the Middle East. When Egyptian and Syrian armies attacked Israel during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, a squadron of eight Israeli F-4 Phantom jets loaded with nuclear bombs was placed on alert by Prime Minister Golda Meir. The aim was to drop nuclear bombs on Cairo and Damascus, should the Arab armies break through. Israel keeps threatening its neighbours and Iran with its nuclear weapons.

A source of concern for Pakistan is presence of Israeli submarines in Indian Ocean (with Indian connivance). Israel developed its own version of submarine-launched Tomahawk cruise missile (SLTCM). In 2000, US Navy radars detected successful launches of Israeli SLTCMs in the Indian Ocean. The missile struck a target 930 miles away. The weapon is the Popeye Turbo, modification of a subsonic air-launched cruise missile that can carry a 200-kiloton nuclear warhead. In 2013, an Israeli Dolphin submarine struck the Syrian port of Latakia with a conventional cruise missile to destroy suspected shipment of Russian P-800 anti-ship missiles. During 1960s, Israeli agents even carried out assassination attempts, kidnappings and bombings of `German weapons scientists’ working on behalf of Arab governments. In subsequent period, Mossad killed many Iranian scientists.

It is not understood why violation of international law by Israel is never noticed by the UNO or USA. Hopefully the media can shed some light on these concerning developments.

SAMAN MALIK

Rawalpindi

Published in Daily Times, July 31^st 2018.