N-cooperation with Iran: US not finished with Pakistan

Daily Times Monitor:

The United States is exerting maximum pressure on Pakistan to provide a detailed and “authentic” list of all of its nuclear cooperation with Iran over the years, Asia Times Online (ATO) reported on Sunday. READ MORE

ATO said contacts in the highest echelons of Pakistan’s strategic quarters had told it that during her recent visit to Islamabad, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice apprised Pakistan of the latest — and strong — US demands. Many in the Bush administration believe that Iran’s nuclear energy programme is a smokescreen for developing nuclear weapons. Tehran has agreed with the European Union and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that it will temporarily suspend its uranium enrichment programme.

Last week, ATO said, Pakistan publicly admitted that nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan had given centrifuges — rather than just blueprints — to Iran as part of a package of materials that could be used to make a nuclear bomb, but only in “his personal capacity”. Centrifuges are used to enrich uranium. Now the US wants hard evidence of this and all of Pakistan’s other dealings so that it can build its case against Iran. This will include full scrutiny of Pakistan’s nuclear programme, especially from the late 1980s until the early 1990s, when Pakistan developed the nuclear device which it eventually tested in 1998.

To Pakistan’s dismay, ATO said, the US demand includes direct access and interrogation of Pakistan’s former chief of army staff, General Aslam Beg (who has on many occasions openly endorsed nuclear cooperation with Iran) former president Ghulam Ishaq Khan and Dr Khan. The exhaustive US demand has sent shockwaves through General Headquarters Rawalpindi, reports ATO. To date, the belief had been that Pakistan’s cooperation has been sufficient to prevent people like Dr Khan from being handed over.

The contacts reportedly told ATO that the initial reaction in Rawalpindi was that the requested people would not be placed in the hands of US interrogators. It is not known what “inducements” Washington is offering Islamabad for its cooperation, or, conversely, what stick it is waving for not cooperating. Pakistan has for a long time wanted F-16 fighters from the US, especially since India is reported to also be in the market, and already receives financial and other US military aid for collaborating in the “war on terror”, ATO said.