In rare push, US lawmakers demand transparency on Israel nuclear capability

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whatsapp-strokecopylinkgoogleAdd Al Jazeera on GoogleinfoRepresentative Joaquin Castro is among a group of Democrats calling for transparency on Israel's nuclear capabilities [Rod Lamkey, Jr/The Associated Press]By Joseph StepanskyPublished On 6 May 20266 May 2026Washington, DC –** A group of Democrats in the United States Congress have called on the State Department to break the US government’s longstanding silence on Israel’s nuclear capabilities.

In a letter sent to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the Democrats pointed to the US-Israel war on Iran as the reason more clarity is urgently needed.

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end of listWhile Israel is believed to have possessed nuclear weapons since the 1960s, it maintains “a policy of nuclear opacity, never officially confirming the existence of its nuclear weapons program and arsenal”, according to the Washington, DC-based Nuclear Threat Initiative.

The White House has also long maintained ambiguity on the issue, despite a handful of glancing admissions. In turn, lawmakers in Congress have launched several coordinated public efforts for greater transparency amid decades of bipartisan support for Israel.

“Congress has a constitutional responsibility to be fully informed about the nuclear balance in the Middle East, the risk of escalation by any party to this conflict, and the administration’s planning and contingencies for such scenarios,” the letter, signed by 30 members of Congress, said. “We do not believe we have received that information.”

“A policy of official ambiguity about the nuclear capabilities of one party to this conflict makes coherent nonproliferation policy in the Middle East impossible,” the letter said, “for Iran, for Saudi Arabia, and for every other state in the region making decisions based on their perceptions of the capabilities of their neighbours.”