largest stockpile of nuclear weapons, consisting of hundreds of warheads. Vanunu was freed in April after spending 18 years in prison for espionage and treason for divulging that information. Because it has resisted international pressure to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, Israel does not formally have to declare itself as a weapons state or agree to any curbs on its nuclear activities. In 1995, Peres declared, «Give me peace, and we will give up the atom. If we achieve regional peace, I think we can make the Middle East free of any nuclear threat.» Newsnight said it had found no evidence that ministers in the government of then Prime Minister Harold Macmillan were aware of the sale and believed the decision was taken simply by civil servants, mainly in the Foreign Office and the U.K. Atomic Energy Authority. The documents reveal the heavy water was transported from a British port in Israeli ships in two consignments, half in June 1959 and half a year later.
