Israel and the US, concerned about Iran’s nuclear programme, have asked the Islamic Republic to scrap the programme. Mossad has made several attempts to sabotage the Iranian nuclear programme in recent times. However, the Israeli intelligence agency is yet to taste success. Incidentally, the Zionist Regime, together with India, had made an attempt to sabotage the Pakistani nuclear programme in the 20th Century. Incidentally, Pakistan emerged as a nuclear power in the 1990s.

Pakistan decided to develop nuclear weapons in the 1980s as Pakistani scientists were conducting nuclear research in Kahuta, adjacent to the Army headquarters in the garrison town of Rawalpindi. However, most defence analysts believe that China and North Korea helped the South Asian nation to develop nuclear weapons. After being completely defeated by India in the 1971 war, the Government of Pakistan focused on developing nuclear weapons. Once, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the former President and Prime Minister of Pakistan, reportedly said: “Pakistan will fight, fight for a thousand years. If India builds the (atom) bomb, Pakistan will eat grass or leaves, even go hungry, but we (Pakistan) will get one of our own (atom bomb)… We (Pakistan) have no other choice!“

New Delhi was in a state of shock after Bhutto made such a comment. The Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), the foreign intelligence agency of India, became active and the Indian agents collected hair samples of the Pakistani defence researchers working at Kahuta. They also found the existence of uranium in those samples. Israel, too, decided to stop Pakistan from developing nuclear weapons as the Pak Army, a staunch supporter of Free Palestine, used to consider the Jewish Nation as an enemy. Hence, Mossad prepared a blueprint for destroying the nuclear plants of Pakistan.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) destroyed the Osirak nuclear reactor of Iraq in 1981 during the Operation Babylon or Operation Opera due to concerns that Iraq would use it to produce nuclear weapons. It may be noted that Iraq purchased the research reactor from France in 1976. Mossad planned to destroy the nuclear research centre in Kahuta in a similar fashion. Although India and Israel had no formal diplomatic relations at that period of time, this particular issue brought them closer. As Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India, also wanted to destroy the nuclear research facility in Kahuta, the Israeli Defence officials reportedly contacted the Indian Army, as well as RAW officers.

The Washington Post and ABC News revealed the joint Indian-Israeli plan to destroy the nuclear research facility of Pakistan in 1982 and in 1984, respectively. Both the media houses claimed that the IDF was supposed to use US-made F-15 and F-16 fighter jets in this risky operation. Adrian Levy, a journalist and filmmaker who writes for The Guardian, mentioned that a high-level delegation of Indian military and intelligence officials visited Israel immediately after the Operation Babylon, a surprise airstrike conducted by the Israeli Air Force on June 7, 1981 that destroyed an unfinished nuclear reactor located 17km southeast of Baghdad. The Indian and Israeli intelligence officers decided all the details of the operation in Tel Aviv.

Western media reported that the Israeli fighter jets were supposed to take off from the Jamnagar Air Force Base in the western Indian Province of Gujarat. It was also decided that they would not cross the border from Gujarat and attack the nuclear research centre in Kahuta. Instead, the Israeli fighter jets were supposed to fly straight to Kashmir and cross the Line of Control (LoC) before moving towards Rawalpindi. RAW argued that it would allow the Israeli jets to reach Kahuta easily, bypassing the Pakistani radar.

As per an article penned by Levy, Prime Minister Gandhi gave the final approval for the operation in March 1984 after holding (indirect) talks with her Israeli counterpart Yitzhak Shamir. However, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) leaked the information to Pakistan, allowing Islamabad to take precautionary measures. Hence, India and Israel had to cancel the plan, although they have never officially acknowledged it.

India conducted five nuclear tests (which included one fusion and four fission bombs), code-named Operation Shakti, at the Pokhran Test Range in Rajasthan on May 11-13, 1998. A couple of weeks later (on May 28, 1998), Pakistan conducted five simultaneous underground nuclear tests, code-named Chagai-I, at the Ras Koh Hills in Chagai District of Balochistan, in response to India’s nuclear tests. In its latest report, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) has mentioned that India is believed to possess around 172 nuclear warheads, while Pakistan is estimated to have 170.

However, India is ahead of Pakistan in terms of nuclear attack capability. The Indian defence forces are capable of launching nuclear attacks from land, water, air and even from submarines. In military terms, it is called the Nuclear Triad (a three-pronged military force structure, consisting of land-based Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs), Submarine-Launched Ballistic Missiles (SLBMs) and strategic bombers with nuclear bombs, as well as missiles, designed to enhance deterrence and ensure a credible second-strike capability).

Although Israel failed to sabotage the nuclear programme of Pakistan, Mossad has been largely successful in delaying the Iranian nuclear programme. The IDF eliminated Mohsen Fakhrizadeh Mahabadi, an Iranian nuclear physicist and scientist who was regarded as the chief of Iran’s nuclear programme, on November 27, 2020. However, Tehran did not abandon its nuclear weapons programme. Israel and the US are somewhat certain that the Persian Gulf nation is quite close to developing nuclear weapons.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das