Libyan leader Col. Muammar Qadhafi said that so long as Israel has nuclear weapons, Arab nations and the Palestinian people should be allowed to develop the same capability, Agence France-Presse reported yesterday (see GSN, Oct. 21).
"If the Israelis have the nuclear weapons and the nuclear capabilities, then it is the right of the Egyptians, the Syrians, the Saudis to have the same -- even the Palestinians should have the same because their counterparts, or their opponents, have nuclear capabilities," Qadhafi said in an interview with the United Kingdom's Sky News.
He added: "If we don't want this situation ... we'll have to disarm the Israelis from their nuclear weapons and capabilities."
Israel is widely believed to be the only Middle Eastern nation to possess nuclear weapons. While the United States has been forceful in its calls for Iran to come clean about its nuclear program, it has long been the policy of Washington to refrain from demanding that Jerusalem make a similar disclosure (see GSN, Oct. 2).
"Iran up to now, hasn't said it is manufacturing a nuclear weapon: Iran says it is enriching uranium," Qadhafi said.
"If Iran were to manufacture nuclear weapons, nuclear arms, then all of us, including us [Libyans], will be against them. But Iran has not said so," he said.
The United States and other Western nations do not believe Tehran's claims that it only has peaceful plans for its nuclear program.
"Our position is clear and it should be clear and evident ... that we are against anyone who manufactures, possesses a nuclear weapon, whether it is Iran, America, Libya, or the Israelis," said Qadhafi, whose own nation several years ago relinquished its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction (Agence France-Presse/Google News, Oct. 26).