Musharraf: Iran must not get the bomb

Khaleej Times:

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf insists that Iran should not acquire a nuclear bomb, while justifying his own country’s possession of atomic weapons, the German weekly Der Spiegel reported in its latest issue. READ MORE

In a question-and-answer interview with Der Spiegel, the 61-year- old Pakistani leader stated: “We are against proliferation. We are against it when other countries acquire nuclear capability.”

When Der Spiegel pointed out that Pakistan cited India’s possession of a nuclear bomb as a reason for it to build one, Musharraf said the situation with Iran was different.

“Contrary to Pakistan with India, Iran does not have a common border with Israel,” Musharraf said. “We were really threatened.”

The Pakistani leader admitted he did not know what might be done to dissuade Teheran from building nuclear weapons. “I don’t know that. But they are certainly very keen on a bomb,” he said about Iran. But he warned against any preventive attacks on Iran.

“In the current world situation it would be a disaster. It would put the Islamic world in an uproar. Why open up new fronts?” he told the magazine, which appears next Monday on newsstands.