Following up on assurances he made in May, President Obama has reportedly ‘reaffirmed’ a secret understanding whereby he will not reveal the existence of Israel’s widely known nuclear arsenal, nor will he pressure Israel to join the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Though Israel has often, albeit accidentally, publicly revealed that they have nuclear weapons, the United States officially has followed a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy with the arsenal, the only one of its kind in the Middle East.

The revelation is likely to cause some international consternation, particularly since President Obama championed a bill at the UN Security Council only last week demanding that all the nations of the world to join the NPT.

Despite this call, the US publicly and angrily rejected a resolution calling for Israel to join the NPT only a week before that, saying that it was “unfair.” Israel has ruled out ever opening up its arsenal to the same international scrutiny as NPT signatories do.