If this was in 1975, what does israel's nculear arsenal consist of today, and why all the focus on Iran?   Marlene   http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/report-israel-offered-to-sell-nuclear-weapons-to-apartheid-south-africa-1.291800 Report: Israel offered to sell nuclear weapons to apartheid South Africa U.K. daily The Guardian quotes new book claiming South Africa wanted the weapons to keep neighboring states and other enemies from attacking them. By Haaretz Service The U.K. newspaper The Guardian reported on Sunday that Israel offered to provide apartheid-era South Africa with nuclear warheads in 1975, quoting a new book which also claimed Israel had passed the component which enabled the explosion of thermonuclear weapons over to South African regime. The Guardian reported that the documents surrounding the military agreement between the countries, to be kept under wraps, were uncovered by American scholar Sasha Polakow-Suransky, doing research for his book.   According to the documents obtained the the newspaper, a secret meeting between then-defense minister Shimon Peres and his South African counterpart P.W. Botha ended with an offer by Jerusalem for the sale of warheads "in three sizes," which the Guardian claims may refer to conventional, chemical and atomic weapons.   The report added that the documents show Pretoria wanted the weapons to keep neighboring states and other enemies from attacking them. The report also said Israeli authorities attempted to keep the South African government from declassifying the documents. According to the Guardian, the minutes of the meeting record that "Minister Botha expressed interest in a limited number of units of Chalet subject to the correct payload being available. ... Minister Peres said the correct payload was available in three sizes. Minister Botha expressed his appreciation and said that he would ask for advice." Sasha Polakow-Suransky is also quoted as saying that Israel's offer to equip South Africa with atomic weapons was the result of the increasingly isolated Apartheid regime's need for a military deterrent. "South Africa's leaders yearned for a nuclear deterrent – which they believed would force the west to intervene on their behalf if Pretoria were ever seriously threatened – and the Israeli proposition put that goal within reach," the Guardian quoted Polakow-Suransky as writing in book. But the alleged deal did not go through, according to Polakow-Suransky, although Israel did reportedly provide South Africa with 30 grams of tritium, the substance which provides thermonuclear weapons with a boost to their explosive power. The delivery, according to the Guardian report, was enough to build several atomic bombs, which South Africa proceeded to do in the coming years. Last month, Haaretz reported ahead of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Review conference in New York that Israel reportedly passed radioactive material to help South Africa's nuclear program in the 1970s. There have been previous claims that Israel and South Africa had initiated a joint nuclear test in 1979. In September 1979, a United States intelligence nuclear detonation detection source, a Vela type satellite, which covered the Indian Ocean, detected a flash several hundred kilometers off South Africa's coast. According to foreign reports, an examination team assumed there had been a joint Israeli-South African test, with another intelligence assessment said it was solely an Israeli test. A third assessment, published at the time, said that even if it was not a joint test, scientists from the Israel Atomic Energy Commission and of the nuclear reactor in Dimona, had been aboard one of the escort ships during the test, and had examined the results. On February 20, 1980, the CBS TV network broadcast an item about the test, saying the two states had carried it out and that the American administration was looking into it.