Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a cabinet meeting at the prime minister's office in occupied Al-Quds, occupied Palestine, Aug. 20, 2023 (AP)

The Israeli occupation will not allow any of its "neighbors" to acquire a nuclear program, Israeli media said on Sunday quoting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office.

"The Prime Minister's office clarified today that Israel will not agree to any of its neighbors having a nuclear program," the Israeli Walla! news website reported.

"The announcement was made after an interview given by the Minister of Strategic Affairs, Ron Dermer, to the American PBS network, in which he hinted that Israel would be willing to accept a civilian nuclear program in Saudi Arabia under certain conditions," the Israeli outlet added.

Meanwhile, The Times of Israel reported that the permier's office clarified the matter, though a source close to Netanyahu and familiar with the matter said the occupation "does not rule out" the idea of Saudi Arabia embarking on the path of uranium enrichment.

PBS’s Nick Schifrin asked Dermer whether the Israeli would agree to Saudi Arabia has such a nuclear program in exchange for normalization, to which he responded: "Like so many things, the devil is in the details, and we're going to have to look at what ultimately is agreed upon."

Israeli media reported earlier in the month that the security and military establishment is mapping out a position regarding the security framework of the normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia.

Israeli channel Kan political affairs commentator Gili Cohen explained that the Israeli security and military establishment is monitoring the discussions between the US administration and senior officials in Saudi Arabia over a huge arms deal that includes advanced systems, and in turn, paves the way for the path of normalization.

Cohen revealed that in recent weeks, Saudi Arabia had conveyed a message to the United States and "Israel", in which it stated that it did not want small steps on the way to normalization, but rather important ones, that is, a big package that includes weapons.

Cohen suggested that if this happens "Israel must obtain advanced weapon systems in return, in order to maintain the qualitative superiority of the Israeli army."

Dermer highlighted that Saudi Arabia could go to China or France and ask for help setting up uranium enrichment plants to up their energy output; doing so lifts restrictions on the path to developing nuclear weapons.

"We're not going to agree to any nuclear weapons program with any of our neighbors," he said. "When it comes to the details of an agreement, what are the safeguards? And what happens if they take another path, if they take a path with the Chinese or something else? We have to think through that whole thing."

Opposition leader Yair Lapid swiftly condemned Dermer's statements, stressing that the was endangering the security of the Israeli occupation.

"We can reach an agreement that strengthens our national security also without having Israel sign an authorization for uranium enrichment in the Middle East," Lapid underlined.

The premier's office issued a statement clarifying the issue in response to Lapid's condemnations, reiterating Dermer's words. "Dermer said that ‘Israel did not agree to a nuclear program of any of its neighboring countries,'" Netanyahu's office said, adding that "this was and remains Israel's policy" — while omitting that the minister had referred specifically to nuclear weapons in that sentence during the interview.

Israeli Channel 13, on the other hand, quoted a source close to the premier as saying that while the occupation does not rule out a Saudi nuclear program in exchange for normalization, "[it] first wants to know what the level of American monitoring of such a process would be, what would be the level of involvement and what would be Israel’s insurance policy, and accordingly devise a clear position."

Reportedly, Riyadh set three conditions in stone for a normalization agreement with the Israeli occupation, which includes access to advanced US defense technology, a defense alliance with Washington, and the permission to set up a nuclear program with civil purposes with US backing.

Former Israeli occupation Prime Minister Ehud Barak admitted in April that the occupation possesses nuclear weapons.

"[...] political parties in the West are deeply concerned about the possibility that, if the coup in Israel succeeds, a messianic dictatorship will be established in the heart of the Middle East with nuclear weapons in its possession," Barak said on Twitter.

Various statements have previously come from Israeli officials condemning the occupation as having or aiming to acquire an arsenal of nuclear weapons, such as former Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, who addressed Jewish scientists leaving Germany and called on them to put their minds to nuclear research and "do everything possible to provide the desired Jewish state with nuclear weapons."

Over the years, the Israeli occupation has adhered to a policy of ambiguity when it comes to its nuclear sector, but the most prominent thing that was leaked was a team of reporters from The Sunday Times saying in the early 90s that Mordechai Vanunu, the technician who was sentenced to 18 years in prison in "Israel", confirmed through photographs and government documents that the occupation had between 100 and 200 nuclear warheads with a variety of destructive capabilities.

Moreover, the Israeli Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper in 1977 quoted French General Georges Bouet as saying during an interview with the French Europe 1 radio that the occupation possessed at the time the means required to produce two atomic bombs a year, revealing that it also had 13 atomic bombs, as well as the means to get them to their targets.

Yedioth Ahronoth reported in 1978 that a New York radio station broadcast a classified documented report on September 4, 1974, prepared by the CIA, which stated: "We believe that Israel has indeed manufactured nuclear weapons."

Maariv also confirmed the report on March 2, 1978, citing a high-ranking CIA official, that then-US President Lyndon Johnson was informed that the Israeli occupation had nuclear weapons, and the head of state ordered that the whole thing remains under covers.

The Israeli occupation challenged the UN Security Council Resolution 487 of June 1981, which required "Tel Aviv" to urgently submit all of its nuclear facilities to the safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The IAEA on September 18, 2009, issued a resolution calling on the occupation to sign the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, as well as open its facilities to international inspection, though the occupation did not express any interest in the matter.