Pak nukes meant only for India
WASHINGTON:
It doesn't matter who attempts to take out Pakistan's nuclear assets the US, Israel or any other country Pakistan will attack India in retaliation. This bizarre, hair-trigger nuclear stance is central to Pakistan's deterrence theory and was conveyed to New Delhi by Islamabad when it suspected India and Israel of collaborating to take out its nuclear assets, a top retired Pakistani general has revealed.
General Mirza Aslam Beg, Pakistan's former army chief, recalled Islamabad's India-centric nuclear policy to the Associated Press' Kathy Gannon while relating how he had given similar advice to Iran in dealing with US pressure on its nuclear programme no matter who attacks, aim for Israel.
"We told India frankly that this is the threat we perceive and this is the action we are taking and the action we will take. It was a real deterrent," Gannon quoted Beg as telling the Iranians about the time when Pakistan was paranoid about an India-Israel nexus. Beg said he suggested the Iranian government "make it clear that if anything happens to Iran, if anyone attacks it it doesn't matter who it is or how it is attacked that Iran's answer will be to hit Israel, the only target will be Israel".
While Pakistan's hair-trigger nuclear posture has long been known to Indian planners, the latest revelations about targeting India for any misfortune to hit its nuclear assets will doubtless force a reassessment in India's own no-first-use nuclear stance. For instance, what happens if the US decides to take out Pakistan's nukes, as has been speculated in the US media? Can India stand by and be a fall guy?
General Mirza Aslam Beg, Pakistan's former army chief, had advised Iran to "attempt to degrade the defence systems of Israel", harass it through the Hamas government of the Palestinian Authority and the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon, broadly the same policy Pakistan adopted towards India in Kashmir through terrorist groups and the extremist factions of the Hurriyat.
He revealed this in an interview to Kathy Gannon, a Canadian journalist who had been AP correspondent in Pakistan and Afghanistan for 18 years before she was moved to Teheran earlier this year. She said the interview took place "several weeks" before the recent threatening exchanges between Iran and Israel.
Gannon recently released her first book, I is for Infidel: From Holy War to Holy Terror, an account of her years in the region, and the Beg interview appears to be a result of the many close contacts she developed over the years.
Beg, however, denied to her that Pakistan had helped Iran with its nuclear programme although he said former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto once told him the Iranians offered more than $4 billion for the technology.
"They didn't want the technology. They asked, ‘Can we have a bomb?' My answer was: By all means you can have it but you must make it yourself. Nobody gave it to us," Gannon quotes Beg as saying about a visit he made to Teheran when he was the army chief in 1990.
While Pakistan may not have given Iran the nuclear bomb, it now transpires that it gave Teheran centrifuge equipment and a blueprint, a supply chain that its current military ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf has blamed on a lone rogue operator A Q Khan an explanation which the western powers have credulously accepted in public. But in a related development, it now turns out that Pakistan peddled nuclear know-how even to Syria, the latest to join the list of countries proliferated by A Q Khan.
According to an annual Congressional report disclosed in Washington, Pakistani investigators have confirmed reports from the International Atomic Energy Agency that the Khan network "offered nuclear technology and hardware to Syria". It is the first time Syria has entered Khan's proliferation ring that so far had North Korea, Iran, Iraq and Libya among the recipients.
Meanwhile, according to reports from Pakistan, Khan himself is now in virtual seclusion, and possibly dying. Even his daughter is forbidden from seeing him. Pakistani opposition leaders are also saying he is gravely ill and are planning protests to ensure that he is adequately attended to.
The Dawn newspaper reported that Ayesha, Khan's daughter, has been barred from meeting her ailing father because of what the authorities said were security reasons. Khan, who turned 71 on April 1, is said to be suffering from high blood pressure, cervical spondylosis, hernia, dental ailments and heart problems.
The US authorities are still keen on questioning him but have been kept at bay by Gen Musharraf on the pretext that such a move would strengthen the hand of the Islamicists.
Pak nukes meant only for India - US - World - The Times of India
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