Botha did not go ahead with the deal because of the cost and the fact that final approval was dependent on Israel's prime minister. South Africa did build its own nuclear bombs and also provided much of the yellowcake uranium that Israel required to develop its nuclear arsenal.
The documents confirm also that former South African naval commander, Dieter Gerhardt admitted there was an agreement between Israel and South Africa called "Chalet" that involved an offer by the Jewish state to arm eight Jericho missiles with "special warheads" understood as atomic bombs.
"Some weeks before Peres made his offer of nuclear warheads to Botha, the two defence ministers signed a covert agreement governing the military alliance known as Secment. It was so secret that it included a denial of its own existence: 'It is hereby expressly agreed that the very existence of this agreement... shall be secret and shall not be disclosed by either party.'" [Ibid]
The secret military agreement signed by Shimon Peres, then president of Israel, and P W Botha of South Africa. Photograph: Copyright Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/23/israel-south-africa-nuclear-weapons
Haaretz also reported that, "From 1963 onward, Ben-Gurion and Peres directed [Israel's nuclear weapons] project under a thick cloud of secrecy, Cohen says. Even senior figures involved in it did not know whether Israel was in fact determined to attain nuclear weapons, or whether it wanted to simply move closer to that watershed. Cohen's book includes a historic anecdote that shows how even at crucial phases in the project's development, Israel's decision-makers refrained from specifying, even in their own internal discussions, its genuine objectives.
"In the days of high anxiety prior to the 1967 Six-Day War, researchers around the world have claimed that Israel passed the nuclear threshold"In the few days before the war, Israel did something it had never done before. In an intensive crash effort, Israeli teams improvised the assembly of the nation's first nuclear explosive devices.
"As Israeli
scientists and technicians were 'tickling the dragon's tail,' meaning
assembling the first nuclear cores for those devices, only a few of them were
even aware that there was a military contingency plan in the works. As Israeli
leaders contemplated the worst scenarios - in particular, the failure of the
Israeli air force to destroy the Arab air forces, and/or the extensive use by
Egypt of chemical weapons against Israeli cities - authority was given for
preliminary contingency planning for 'demonstrating' Israel's nuclear
capability."
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