Gates defends Israel on arms

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates defended Israel’s purported nuclear arms program at a gathering of Middle East leaders in Manama, Bahrain. Asked whether he thought the program posed a threat to the region, Gates said, “No, I do not.”

The statement was greeted by laughter from a room filled with government officials from Middle Eastern countries.

Israel is widely assumed to have the region’s only atomic arsenal, but has never confirmed it.

Gates dismissed the allegation that the United States applied a double standard on the nuclear issue by supporting Israel while calling for Iran to abandon its enrichment activities.

“Israel is not training terrorists to subvert its neighbors. It has not shipped weapons into a place like Iraq to kill thousands of innocent civilians covertly,” Gates said. “So I think there are significant differences in terms of both the history and the behavior of the Iranian and Israeli governments.”