Pakistan Rejects Request to Inspect Nuclear Sites

Rejecting a request to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect his country’s nuclear facilities, Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States pledged Saturday to cooperate to a lesser extent with the agency’s investigation of Iran’s nuclear program (see GSN, March 26).

Agency inspectors hoped samples from the Pakistani sites could verify Iranian claims that traces of highly enriched uranium contamination in that country originated in Pakistan.

“We won’t allow any intrusive inspections of our sites — no state does that, and neither will we,” Pakistani Ambassador Ashraf Qazi said in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle.  “We are mindful of our own sovereign independence and sites. Those are off-limits.  That doesn’t mean we can’t work out modalities which can provide the necessary information. Within those parameters, we will cooperate with the IAEA, and I think we’ll be able to work out something where they can verify or ascertain whatever information they need,” he said (Jonathan Curiel, San Francisco Chronicle, March 28).

Meanwhile, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said yesterday there was no evidence that Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf was involved in the nuclear transfers involving former top Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, according to the Los Angeles Times.

“If you’re asking me, do I think Musharraf, either now or when he was head of the military, was engaged with that … I have no reason and have seen no evidence to suggest it,” Rumsfeld said during an appearance on ABC’s This Week.

In an interview Friday, Musharraf sought to reduce the proliferation concerns generated by Khan’s activities, saying that even if terrorists were to obtain a nuclear weapon, they could not use it without a triggering mechanism.

“People are, I think, over-assessing the physical damage of the proliferation that he has done. It is a highly technical issue,” Musharraf said. “If I hand over a missile or a bomb to any extremist, believe me, he can do nothing about it. He cannot explode it,” Musharraf added.

He also denied that Pakistan and the United States had made an agreement for Pakistan to crack down on suspected al-Qaeda militants operating on its border with Afghanistan in exchange for the Bush administration taking a soft approach on Khan’s nuclear activities.

“There is no deal whatsoever,” Musharraf said. “This is all humbug.  There is just no deal,” he added (Chuck Neubauer, Los Angeles Times, March 29).

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