The CIA document, according to Foreign Policy, states that US satellites in 1982 found "a probable CW [chemical weapon] nerve agent production facility and a storage facility... at the Dimona Sensitive Storage Area in the Negev Desert."

Furthermore, the document also says, "Other CW production is believed to exist within a well-developed Israeli chemical industry."

The CIA document purportedly goes on to say that, "While we cannot confirm whether the Israelis possess lethal chemical agents, several indicators lead us to believe that they have available to them at least persistent and nonpersistent nerve agents, a mustard agent, ... with suitable delivery systems."

The research and development of these weapons is being carried out at secretive Israel Institute for Biological Research, located in Nes Ziona, a short distance south of Tel Aviv, the article says.

The report further says according to US intelligence in January 1976 Israel conducted a possible test of chemical weapons in the Negev desert.

The report quotes a US air force intelligence officer, who says that the US National Security Agency intercepted communications which proved that Israel Air Force bombers conducted simulated chemical weapons delivery missions at a bombing range in the Negev.

A possible site for the storage of chemical weapons in the Negev is also identified in the report which is “in a desolate and virtually uninhabited area of the Negev Desert just east of the village of al-Kilab, which is only 10 miles west of the outskirts of the city of Dimona".

the report comes as United States, Israel’s strongest ally, has decided to bomb Syria over conflicting reports of use of chemical weapons which Washington says the Syrian government was responsible for but it is widely believed that the anti-Syria militants might be behind the attack.

SHI/BA