More Than 30 House Democrats Urge Trump To Acknowledge Israel’s Undeclared Nuclear Weapons Program

More than 30 House Democrats urged the Trump administration to publicly acknowledge Israel’s “undeclared” nuclear weapons program in a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, framing the issue around the war with Iran. The Hill reported that Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) and more than two dozen lawmakers said Iranian missile attacks have targeted Israeli nuclear facilities in Dimona after initial U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran on Feb. 28. TRT World said the lawmakers wrote, “We are, in the fullest sense, fighting this war side by side with a country whose potential nuclear weapons program the United States government officially refuses to acknowledge,” and asked Rubio questions about the site, including whether it produces fissile material for a bomb. The Guardian added that the letter argues it is unsustainable for Donald Trump to collaborate with Benjamin Netanyahu on a military campaign against Iran without publicly acknowledging the U.S. ally’s possession of the bomb.

The Washington Post, as relayed by Israel Hayom, said the letter would mark a sharp break from decades of bipartisan U.S. policy and described the silence as an “open secret” among intelligence officials since the late 1960s. Avner Cohen, an Israeli-American scholar, told The Washington Post that the letter broke a taboo that had held for more than half a century, saying, “This is something people had not dared to do before.” The Guardian reported that the Democrats’ letter warns that “The risks of miscalculation, escalation, and nuclear use in this environment are not theoretical,” and it cited Robert Gates’s 2006 confirmation hearing line about “powers with nuclear weapons.” In the same dispute over what Washington should disclose, TRT World said the lawmakers asked Rubio to respond by May 18, while The Times of Israel said the Monday letter was expected to be ignored.

The Democrats’ push ties Israel’s nuclear ambiguity to broader nonproliferation efforts in the region, with the letter arguing that U.S. silence makes coherent policy “impossible” for Iran, Saudi Arabia, and every other state in the region making decisions based on their perceptions of neighbors’ capabilities. Anadolu Ajansı reported the lawmakers wrote to Rubio that “Washington’s silence on this program is untenable amid the war against Iran and the severe threat of military escalation,” and it said they demanded disclosure of details including Israel’s nuclear program and the “red lines” for use in the current conflict. TRT World said the lawmakers cited evidence including Mordechai Vanunu’s 1986 presentation to British media and a U.S. intelligence assessment from 1974 that was not made public until 2008, and it also pointed to Gates’s testimony about nuclear-armed powers around Israel. In a separate Iranian political statement, روزنامه شرق quoted Jalal Rashidi-Kochi, a Marvdasht representative in the eleventh Parliament, saying that if “another war is imposed on us,” “very large and unusual surprises” have been prepared for the aggressor.