Israel should have monopoly on nuclear weapons in region: Belgian defense minister

Belgium’s defense minister said Wednesday that Israel must have a monopoly on nuclear weapons in the Middle East, adding that Iran is a threat to the West and should not be allowed to have nuclear weapons.

“I think that we need to do everything to ensure Iran cannot have a nuclear capacity. The monopoly of Israel on the nuclear perspective is absolutely necessary,” Belgian Defense Minister Theo Francken told Al Arabiya English on the sidelines of the NATO Summit in The Hague.

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“Iran is a direct threat to the West, absolutely,” he added.

Following last weekend’s unprecedented US bombing operation against three Iranian nuclear sites, including the notorious Fordow, conflicting reports have emerged over how much impact those strikes had.

Low-level intelligence assessments from the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) leaked to US media this week suggested that Iran may still have a majority of its nuclear capabilities intact.

A senior DIA official told Al Arabiya English on Wednesday that a probe had been launched into the leak, highlighting that it was a preliminary, low-confidence assessment, not a final conclusion.

“We have still not been able to review the actual physical sites themselves, which will give us the best indication,” a senior DIA official told Al Arabiya English.

Asked about the impact of the US strikes, the Belgian minister said the reports were not very convincing. “When you drop those bombs on that site, I think that the probability is very high that it is destroyed. But I’m not there; I’m not an expert,” Franken said.

Read more: Pentagon, FBI launch probe into leaked report on US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites