Israel owns 90 nuclear warheads: Report

JERUSALEM

Israel is believed to possess between 80 and 90 nuclear warheads, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said on Monday.

In a report, SIPRI said Israel continues to pursue a policy of ambiguity regarding its nuclear program.

It said that the number of nuclear warheads in Israel rose to 90, up from 80 warheads in 2019.

"The nine nuclear-armed states—the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea)—together possessed an estimated 13,400 nuclear weapons at the start of 2020," the SIPRI report said.

In 2015, the Washington DC-based Institute for Science and International Security said that Israel has produced 115 nuclear warheads since it began making them in 1963.

The true number of Israeli nuclear weapons remains a closely guarded secret.

*Ahmed Asmar contributed to this report from Ankara