Is It Time to Talk About Israel's Nukes? Is the Dimona Site Being Expanded?

Despite the fact that global conversations have been focused on the US-Iranian talks that are meant to reenact the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, a number of reports and tweets have shifted eyes to highlight the other major nuclear project in the Middle East, that of Israel.

An article in Foreign Policy magazine published last Friday has called on the new US president Joe Biden to "end US double standards with regard to the Israeli nuclear efforts." The article written by Victor Gilinsky and Henry Sokolski explored the different ways Israel's work to strengthen its nuclear programs has been concealed by the different US administrations.

Sparking a major discussion online, the article has successfully triggered social media users from around the world to question the reason the US has such a strict approach with the Iranian proliferation attempts as opposed to those of Israel, ones that are believed to be carried out in the Shimon Peres Negev Nuclear Research Center, often referred to as the Dimona site.

Only one day before the FP article, the International Panel on Fissile Material (IPFM) published satellite images showing new construction near the Dimona site, suggesting Israeli plans to expand its buildings, which might point at plans to intensify nuclear proliferation for military purposes.

Commenting on the news, the Foreign Minister of Iran Javad Zarif addressed some of the world's leaders in a tweet, including the US president Joe Biden, the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the French president Emmanuel Macron, the German Counselor Angela Merkel, in addition to the International Atomic Energy Agency,
calling on them to show the same kind of concern they express when talking about the Iranian program.