The release of classified documents which suggest that Israel offered to sell nuclear warheads to South Africa was back lashed the Israeli administration.
The papers, labeled top-secret, were uncovered by a US academic and published in the British daily The Guardian. According to documents, Israel's defense minister at the time Shimon Peres offered three sizes of nuclear warheads to his South African counterpart P.W. Botha.
The Guardian says that Israel endeavored to prevent handing of the document to academic Sasha Polakow-Suransky, but was unsuccessful.
Analysts say that minutes of Peres-Botha deal talks are clear signs of nuclear arms presence in the Jewish state.
Now Israel's President, Peres categorically denied the allegations and described the report as baseless citing that Israel has never discussed nuclear arms delivery to South Africa.
"There exists no basis in reality for the claims published this morning by The Guardian that in 1975 Israel negotiated with South Africa the exchange of nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, The Guardian elected to write its piece based on the selective interpretation of South African documents and not on concrete facts," said Peres.