MIDEAST-ISRAEL-IRAQ

Partial view of the Dimona nuclear power plant in the southern Israeli Negev desert taken 08 September 2002 which is being protected by Patriot anti-missile batteries as a precaution ahead of the anniversary of the 11 September 2001 terror attacks and a possible US strike on Iraq. Israel fears that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein could hit Israel with non-conventional weapons if the United States attacks Baghdad. The plant was built with help from the French in the 1950's, when Paris was the main arms supplier to the Jewish state. The complex was described by Israel as various types of non-nuclear facilities until then Prime Minister David Ben Gurion said in December 1960 that it was a nuclear research center built for "peacful purposes." In 1986, Mordechai Vanunu, a technician at the plant, revealed to the London Sunday Times that it was being used to produce nuclear arms. Foreign press reports say Israel stockpiles between 100 and 200 nuclear weapons at the site. Israel has never publicly acknowledged its military nuclear capacity but refuses to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. AFP PHOTO/Thomas COEX (Photo by THOMAS COEX / AFP) (Photo by THOMAS COEX/AFP via Getty Images)