Controversial ex-U.S. President Jimmy Carter has weighed into the Middle East foray again by publicly stating that Israel has 150 nuclear weapons, the first time a U.S. president has openly acknowledged one of the worst kept secrets in the region.

Carter was asked at a news conference at Wales' Hay literary festival on Sunday how the United States should deal with the Iranian nuclear threat, to which he responded that the global situation internationally should be put into context.

"The U.S. has more than 12,000 nuclear weapons, the Soviet Union [Russia] has about the same, Great Britain and France have several hundred, and Israel has 150 or more. We have a phalanx of enormous weaponry ... not only of enormous weaponry, but of rockets to deliver those missiles on a pinpoint accuracy target," he stated.

Israel is widely believed to be one of four nuclear-armed countries not recognized as a nuclear weapons state by the Nuclear Non- …