Israel is equipping German-built submarines with nuclear missiles, news magazine Der Spiegel reported on Sunday.
The magazine gave no supply for its online report but mentioned the information was based on “extensive research.”
The Israeli Defence Ministry in Tel Aviv declined to comment, saying it was checking the report.
Israel has never ever confirmed or denied it has nuclear weapons.
A German shipyard in the city of Kiel has currently built three Dolphin-class submarines for Israel. Three a lot more are planned.
The submarines were sold to Israel at a discount cost, with the German government paying some of the price.
Der Spiegel quoted former high-ranking German defence officials as saying they had always assumed Israel would fit the submarines with nuclear weapons.
It also mentioned that German Foreign Ministry documents showed Berlin had identified about Israel‘s nuclear weapons programme since 1961.
Der Spiegel stated Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed to finance one-third of the price of the sixth submarine – about 135 million euros (168 million US dollars) – and to allow Israel to defer payment till 2015. The submarine will be delivered in 2017, it mentioned.
German novelist Guenter Grass in April criticized the German government in a poem for agreeing to supply Israel with submarines, which he mentioned were capable of sending “all-destroying warheads to a location, where the existence of not even a single atom bomb has been proved,” referring to Iran.
The controversial poem also accused Israel of in search of to “wipe out the Iranian people” and of being a greater danger to globe peace than a nuclear-armed Iran. dpa ok jln Author: Ofira Koopmans.
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