Israel's possession of nukes and its potential to trigger an arms race were a source of concern to Richard Nixon's aides, a report says.

""The Israelis are probably more likely than almost any other country to actually use their nuclear weapons,"" Henry Kissinger warned in a July 19, 1969 memorandum, according to a New York Times report on Thursday.
He served as President Richard Nixon's national security adviser.
Moreover, it showed concern on the part of Kissinger that the Zionist regime may have systematically stolen material from the United States for its nuclear development.
""This is one program on which the Israelis have persistently deceived us and may even have stolen from us,"" Kissinger wrote.
He also stated that there is circumstantial evidence that some fissile material available for Israel's weapons development was illegally obtained from the United States in 1965.
Kissinger even suggested withholding the sale of Phantom fighter jets to Israel as a way of compelling the regime to yield on the nuclear issue.
The former national security adviser also noted that in case the United States withheld the Phantoms and Israel made this fact public in the U.S., enormous political pressure would be mounted on the Nixon administration.
""We will be in an indefensible position if we cannot state why we are withholding the planes. Yet if we explain our position publicly, we will be the ones to make Israel's possession of nuclear weapons public with all the international consequences this entails,"" Kissinger concluded.
(Source: Press TV)