Powell's leaked emails indicate Israel has 200 nuclear bombs, all directed towards Iran

Washington : The leaked emails of Colin Powell, the former US Secretary of State, revealed that Israel had 200 nuclear bombs directed at Iran. Therefore should Iran at all be successful in producing nuclear bombs, it cannot even think of using them. It was only last week that Iran had published reports of the deployment of “S-300”, the advanced missile defense system, to protect its nuclear programs. It is on this background, that the said information has been disclosed from Powell’s emails dating last year.

Last year, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had visited the United States. He had strongly criticized the negotiations that the Obama administration had begun with Iran, as a result of which President Obama had declined to meet Netanyahu.

In the course of this visit to the US, Netanyahu had warned that if Iran were successful in producing nuclear bombs, Israel was not to be considered responsible for the resulting consequences. It has been claimed that these statements on Netanyahu’s part had caused tensions between the United States and Israel.

Consequent to this, on 3^rd March 2015, Powell had sent an email to his colleague and Democratic Party mega donor, Jeffery Leeds. The emails in question were made public by some hackers and Powell’s spokesperson confirmed their contents. In the email, Powell had disclosed that Israel had a nuclear bomb and that the Iranian leaders too were aware of Israel’s nuclear readiness.

So far, Israel has maintained secrecy about its nuclear programs. Even though, Iran alleges that Israel is nuclear-ready, the United States has avoided commenting on Israel’s nuclear program. In this context, the revelation that Powell makes in the email proves to be very crucial.

Powell justified Prime Minister Netanyahu’s criticism of the Obama administration for holding negotiations with Iran. He also said that these negotiations would not be fruitful. However, after the agreement with Iran was signed in the month of July, Powell switched his stand and supported these negotiations.

In his emails, Powell had indicated the possibility of Iran testing the nuclear bomb even after these negotiations. His emails also contained a warning that imposing sanctions would not stop Iran’s nuclear programs.