US doesn’t want Israel’s nuclear profile raised: Analyst

The United States has does not want Israel’s nuclear profile to be raised, American political analyst Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich says.

Ulrich, who is an independent researcher, public speaker and writer with a focus on US foreign policy, made the remarks in a phone interview with Press TV on Sunday while commenting on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s telephone call to US Secretary of State John Kerry.

Netanyahu asked Kerry on Saturday to convey his gratitude to President Barack Obama for blocking a UN measure that could have forced Israel to disclose its arsenal of nuclear weapons.

More than 150 countries participated in a month-long conference in New York reviewing the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) aimed at preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology.

But the talks ended in failure late Friday after the US and its allies, including Canada and Britain rejected a proposal made by Arab countries to establish a nuclear weapons-free zone in the Middle East by March 2016.

“The fact that the United States blocked the nuclear-free proposal by the NPT and member states doesn’t come as a surprise, but it’s perhaps a bit more interesting is the fact that Netanyahu openly thanked Kerry and Obama,” Ulrich.

“And this perhaps demonstrates that in spite of the public rift, it is being indicated that America would have always Israel’s back, regardless Netanyahu has been the prime minister or not,” she added.

“The United States’ action is nothing, and I think we really need to understand that America has never wanted Israel’s nuclear profile to be raised,” she noted.

Israel is not a party to the treaty and has never publicly declared what is widely considered to be an extensive nuclear weapons program. However, it attended the conference as an observer.

Israel is believed to be the sole possessor of a nuclear arsenal in the Middle East with more than 200 undeclared nuclear warheads.

Tel Aviv has rejected global calls to join the NPT and does not allow international inspectors to observe its controversial nuclear program.

Ulrich went on to say that one could say that “Israel is blackmailing America, because America does not want the nuclear profile of Israel to be come out in the open, for one thing that it would spur arms race.”

“Another issue that is very important is that if Israel was forced to declare its nuclear weapons, which amount to 200 and more, how they can continue the narrative that Iran is a threat to them,” she stated.

“Israel needs the narrative of a threat to continue getting American aid to diverge from its activities,” she emphasized.

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