WikiLeaks: ook Italië herbergt kernwapens VS (en)
EUOBSERVER i / BRUSSELS - Italy has now been outed as the fifth European power to host nuclear weapons by digital whistleblower site WikiLeaks' release of US diplomatic cables, while Belgium has been shown to have rejected a German overture to have US atom bombs removed from Europe.
Italy has long been suspected of hosting a total of 90 such arms, but as with Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Turkey, who were outed as custodians of US weapons of mass destruction on Monday by cable leaks, Rome has always maintained a policy of neither confirming nor denying their presence.
In a message last November from the American embassy in Brussels intended for US secretary of state Hilary Clinton ahead of her visit to the Belgian capital and classified as secret by ambassador Howard Gutman, mentions that Belgium had "rejected a recent overture from Germany to join with the Netherlands, Italy and Germany to propose to the rest of Nato that nuclear weapons be removed from those countries."
An earlier WikiLeak cable release had revealed Belgium itself, as well as the Netherlands, Germany and Turkey as the other European powers secretly hosting US nuclear weapons, although Italy had not been mentioned.
"Belgium has a special interest in nuclear non-proliferation issues because it participates in NATO's nuclear forces at the Kleine Brogel air force base."
The cable reveals that Germany had recently proposed to Italy, Belgium, and the Netherlands that the time was now right to propose to NATO that American atom bombs finally be retired from Europe.
In doing so, the cable unmasks Italy as the fifth European custodian of US nuclear weapons. It is thought that the country maintains 50 at Aviane Air Base near Udine in the north of the country, and 40 at Ghedi Torre Air Base near Brescia on the Adriatic coast, although the cable does not mention these two sites specifically.
However, Belgium did not support the German proposal.
"It rejected a recent overture from Germany to join with the Netherlands, Italy and Germany to propose to the rest of Nato that nuclear weapons be removed from those countries."
The message goes on to warn however that Prime Minister Yves Leterme i when he had been foreign minister, had "initially responded too positively to the idea."
Approvingly, he writes that the Belgian ministries of defence and foreign affairs "had to rein in then-Foreign Minister Leterme."
The cable notes that Belgium's official policy "rejects a unilateral approach to disarmament and insists that the issue must be discussed among all NATO members at one time, with due regard for US-Russian bilateral discussions and the NPT [Non-proliferation Treaty]."
The document also describes how the government "is also opposing a proposal from the floor of the Belgian parliament to ban nuclear weapons from Belgian soil."