,
JERUSALEM: On a tour of Major Middle East ports, the Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior docked near the city of Tel Aviv on Thursday with a call for Israel to suspend its undeclared military nuclear programme.
The Greenpeace flagship, which has sailed across the world in support of environmental causes, last month embarked on a three-month tour of the region's countries to promote a nuclear-free Middle East.
On Thursday it dropped anchor of the shores of Israel, the region's sole country assumed to have nuclear weapons.
“The pursuit of a policy of ambiguity about the possible existence of a nuclear programme in Israel only serves to destabilize the region,” Greenpeace spokesman Yonatan Leibowitz said at a press conference in Tel Aviv.
“What is needed is a policy of honesty and transparency — one that will pave the way to a nuclear free Middle East,” he said, according to a statement released by the group.
Israel has two nuclear research centres in the centre and the south of the country. It has nevertheless maintained a policy of ambiguity over the existence of nuclear weapons in Israel.
“Nuclear power and nuclear weapons pose a serious threat to the safety and security of the entire region,” said Paul Horsman, a Greenpeace activist.
“Throughout this tour Greenpeace has been calling on all countries to join the discussion for a nuclear free Middle East and today in Tel Aviv we call on Israel to do the same,” he said at the press conference.
“Nuclear technology is not the solution to either national security or energy needs.”
On Monday, the Rainbow Warrior docked at Egypt's Mediterranean port of Alexandria to protest Cairo's announcement it was restarting its nuclear programme, dormant since the Chernobyl disaster of 1986.
The ship's tour continues to Beirut, Lebanon, and ends in Istanbul, Turkey in mid-April.
