Documents reveal how then-defence minister Shimon Perez tried to sell South Africa’s apartheid government the bomb

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A suivre, documents produits par The Guardian

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Chris McGreal guardian.co.uk

This is the secret memo by South Africa’s military chief of staff, General RF Armstrong, asking for nukes on the Jericho missiles. It has been revealed before, but its context was not understood. We now know the memo was the direct result of a meeting between PW Botha and Shimon Peres, and the basis of Botha’s demand for nukes. This memo was uncovered by Peter Liberman and published in the Nonproliferation Review.

• Declassified memo from General RF Armstrong

This cover page of an ISSA (ISrael-South Africa agreement) meeting in Pretoria between Israeli and South African officials on 30 June 1975 establishes the presence of General Armstrong, who wrote the nuclear memo.

• Minutes of third ISSA meeting, 30/6/1975

This document details the another ISSA meeting during which Botha says he needs the ’right payload’ and Peres offers it in ’three sizes’ (paragraph 10).

• Minutes from further ISSA meeting

This is the cover page and two other pages from the secret military agreement between Israel and South Africa, signed by both Shimon Peres and Botha. Note on page two there is a clause that says the very existence of the agreement is secret. Both men have signed the agreement on page three.

• Israel-South Africa agreement

In this letter, dated 11 November 1974, Peres says Israel and the South African apartheid government share a “common hatred of injustice” and urges a “close identity of aspirations and interests”.

• Letter from Shimon Peres, 11/11/1974