Premier Yitzhak Rabin, fielding persistent questions about Israel’s nuclear weapons status from Mexican newsmen accompanying visiting Mexican President Luis Echeverria, said Israel has said time and again that it would not be “the first state to introduce nuclear weapons into the Middle East conflict.”
He gave that reply to the first question directed at him yesterday during a joint press conference with the Mexican President as to whether Israel was or was not in possession of nuclear weapons and how Israel squared such weapons with its declared desire for peace.
Subsequently, another Mexican journalist tackled the issue with a blunt question: “Does Israel have a nuclear bomb–yes or no?” Rabin, barely concealing a smile at the sharpness of the question, replied, “Israel is not a nuclear state.”
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