President : Fear of presumed Israeli nukes deters Iran

Israel's President Shimon Peres said Tuesday reports of Israel's rumored secret stock of nuclear weapons serve as a useful deterrent to foes like Iran. While calling Iran the biggest threat to the world, he assured Foreign Ministry employees at a year-end assembly that "Iran is very dangerous, but there is no need to get hysterical," according to Israel Radio. "Israel has abilities -- real or imagined -- that are enough of a deterrence, such as Dimona," said Peres. Foreign military observers have long suspected Israel of having an estimated arsenal of 100 to 200 nuclear weapons, although officials have always held to a policy of nuclear ambiguity, stating that Israel would not be the first or last country in the Middle East to formally introduce nuclear weapons into the region. Peres told the Jewish State's ambassadors and consulate chiefs abroad that "Israel has been in worse positions," citing the period of the 1948 War of Independence when the nascent country was both heavily outgunned and outnumbered by surrounding Arab states and irregular forces, according to The Jerusalem Post. According to reports, Peres has been instrumental in developing Israel's nuclear prowess, including what nuclear analysts have sometimes referred to as "the bomb in the basement." In 1953, Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, appointed him as Director-General of the Ministry of Defense, and in 1956, Peres reached an agreement with France's Atomic Energy Commission to build a research reactor at the Negev Desert town of Dimona, which is still in operation.