Israeli Newspaper Says Government Wanted To Attack Pakistani Reactor
February 23, 1987
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) _ The Jerusalem Post said Sunday that Israel three times tried to convince India to jointly attack a nuclear reactor in Pakistan, but was rebuffed.
The report by the newspaper’s London correspondent David Horowitz quoted unidentified ″top level political analysts″ in the British capital. The report said the proposals were made in recent years, but did not elaborate.
The plant, believed capable of producing nuclear weapons, is at Kahuta outside Islamabad. Pakistan has denied it is building nuclear weapons.
The report said Israel was provided with detailed satellite photographs and other top-secret U.S. intelligence concerning the plant by Jonathan Jay Pollard, the U.S. civilian naval intelligence analyst convicted of spying for Israel.
The Jerusalem Post reported earlier that Polland provided Israel with more than 1,000 secret U.S. documents of major importance.
It said these included photos of the Pakistani reactor, information about Soviet naval movements in the Mediterranean, arms shipments to the Arab countries and satellite photos and maps of Iraqi and Syrian weapons and chemical warfare facilities.
Israel’s interest in destroying the Pakistani reactor stems from its opposition to any Moslem country having access to nuclear arms and the fear that Pakistan might be taken over by Islamic fundamentalists, the report said.
It would be impossible for the Israel Air Force to act against the Pakistani reactor without refuelling facilities in western India because of the distance from Israel.
Israeli bombers destroyed Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor in June 1981 reportedly after being provided with U.S. satellite photos by Pollard. Israel claimed the reactor was making nuclear weapons material, a charge Iraq denied.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) _ The Jerusalem Post said Sunday that Israel three times tried to convince India to jointly attack a nuclear reactor in Pakistan, but was rebuffed.
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