Nuke rebuke: US told to keep hands off Pakistan’s nuclear weapons
Officials say the issue came up during Gilani-Clinton meeting but the PM’s press secretary denies this was...
ISLAMABAD:
Pakistan sought a firm guarantee from the US that its nuclear arsenal is secure during Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to Islamabad last month, The Express Tribune has learnt.
Officials familiar with Clinton’s meetings with Pakistan’s top civilian and military leaders said that concerns about the safety of the country’s nuclear stockpile was part of discussions at all levels. “They [the Americans] expressed their point of view and we presented ours … what we asked for was that there shouldn’t be any aggression or doubts about our nuclear programme,” one of the officials said.
Though it isn’t known how the US responded to Pakistan’s concerns, officials said Islamabad made it clear to Clinton that its cooperation with Washington in the war on terror, especially to ‘convince’ the Afghan Taliban to join peace talks, was linked to its nuclear demand.
There have always been concerns about the possibility of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons falling into the hands of extremists but Islamabad rejects these fears, saying it has foolproof security and safety mechanisms in place.
Officials said the issue came up during the meeting of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and Clinton. The prime minister’s press secretary Akram Shaheedi, however, said the issue wasn’t discussed. “Not at all,” was his terse answer when approached to confirm or deny this. A foreign office spokeswoman refused to offer any comment as well.
But the official insisted that the safety of the nuclear programme was one of the major conditions of Islamabad’s future cooperation with the US. In return, the official added, Pakistan had agreed to ‘neutralise’ the Haqqani network to the extent that it agrees to open negotiations with the US.
The question of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons has been at the forefront recently after an article in US magazine The Atlantic raised fears about the way the weapons are transported and claimed that the US had prepared missions to secure the weapons. The article was dismissed by the foreign ministry as “pure fiction”.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 14th, 2011.
Pakistan sought a firm guarantee from the US that its nuclear arsenal is secure during Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to Islamabad last month, The Express Tribune has learnt.
Officials familiar with Clinton’s meetings with Pakistan’s top civilian and military leaders said that concerns about the safety of the country’s nuclear stockpile was part of discussions at all levels. “They [the Americans] expressed their point of view and we presented ours … what we asked for was that there shouldn’t be any aggression or doubts about our nuclear programme,” one of the officials said.
Though it isn’t known how the US responded to Pakistan’s concerns, officials said Islamabad made it clear to Clinton that its cooperation with Washington in the war on terror, especially to ‘convince’ the Afghan Taliban to join peace talks, was linked to its nuclear demand.
There have always been concerns about the possibility of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons falling into the hands of extremists but Islamabad rejects these fears, saying it has foolproof security and safety mechanisms in place.
Officials said the issue came up during the meeting of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and Clinton. The prime minister’s press secretary Akram Shaheedi, however, said the issue wasn’t discussed. “Not at all,” was his terse answer when approached to confirm or deny this. A foreign office spokeswoman refused to offer any comment as well.
But the official insisted that the safety of the nuclear programme was one of the major conditions of Islamabad’s future cooperation with the US. In return, the official added, Pakistan had agreed to ‘neutralise’ the Haqqani network to the extent that it agrees to open negotiations with the US.
The question of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons has been at the forefront recently after an article in US magazine The Atlantic raised fears about the way the weapons are transported and claimed that the US had prepared missions to secure the weapons. The article was dismissed by the foreign ministry as “pure fiction”.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 14th, 2011.