News - Middle East: Experts analyzing satellite imagery report that construction has intensified on a significant new building at a site central to Israel's nuclear weapons program, which they say could be a new reactor or a facility to assemble nuclear arms.

The work at the Shimon Peres Negev Nuclear Research Center near the city of Dimona will renew questions about Israel’s widely believed status as the only entity possessing nuclear bombs in West Asia. 

This development could provoke international outcry, particularly as it follows the US-Israeli aggression against Iran's peaceful nuclear sites.

On June 13, Israel launched a blatant and unprovoked act of aggression against Iran, assassinating numerous high-ranking military commanders, nuclear scientists, and ordinary civilians.

More than a week later, the US joined the aggression by bombing three Iranian nuclear sites, an action which constitutes a grave violation of the United Nations Charter, international law, and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Images taken July 5 by Planet Labs PBC show intensified construction at the site of the dig. Thick concrete retaining walls seem to be laid at the site, which appears to have multiple floors underground. Cranes loom overhead.

A unanimous assessment from seven experts reviewing the imagery confirms the construction is linked to Israel's nuclear weapons program due to its location near the Dimona reactor, which lacks a civilian power plant.

Three believed it was likely a new heavy water reactor for producing plutonium, while the other four suggested it could also be a facility for assembling nuclear weapons.

Israel is widely believed to manufacture its nuclear weapons using a heavy water reactor, which produces plutonium for atomic bombs and tritium to boost their explosive yield.

Both the Israeli regime and its staunchest ally, the US, declined to comment, adhering to Israel's policy of neither confirming nor denying the existence of its nuclear arsenal.

Israel, which pursues a policy of deliberate ambiguity about its nuclear weapons, is estimated to possess 200 to 400 nuclear warheads in its arsenal, making it the sole possessor of non-conventional arms in West Asia.

It has, however, refused to either allow inspections of its military nuclear facilities or sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) with the invariable support of Washington.

Source: Press TV