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| Saturday, 7 February 2004 |
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Pakistan to help UN probe nuke leaks to Iran LONDON, Friday (Reuters) Pakistan's foreign minister said his country will help the United Nations probe leaks of nuclear technology to Iran, although it would not allow an investigation into its own nuclear programme. President Pervez Musharraf pardoned scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan on Thursday after he confessed to leaking nuclear secrets. Musharraf told a news conference Pakistan would give no documents to the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency or permit it to hold an independent probe into Khan's activities. But Foreign Minister Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri said Musharraf had been "misunderstood", and that what he meant was Pakistan would not allow the IAEA to investigate Pakistan's own nuclear programmes, although it would help the body investigate Iran. "What he said is actually that we are under no obligations," Kasuri told the BBC World Service radio's The World Today programme. "We will cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency." "What is the International Atomic Energy Agency's function?... It's a body that has come into the picture because Iran has signed the additional protocol. They wish to investigate whether Iran's declaration is correct or not. "We will not allow them under any situation whatsoever to come and peep into our programme. These are our national secrets. But wherever they need support to achieve their declared objectives...we will fully cooperate," he said. Meanwhile the United States strongly defended Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, despite his pardon of a disgraced scientist who sold nuclear secrets to Libya and members of President George W. Bush's "axis of evil," Iran and North Korea. Reflecting a balancing act between its usual aggressive stance on punishing proliferation and its firm support for Musharraf - a key ally in the U.S. anti-terror war - the White House said Pakistan has proved its intent through action. "This proliferation network is no longer. The actions of Pakistan have broken up this network," spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters aboard Air Force One enroute back from an event in South Carolina, where Bush gave a speech. He said Musharraf provided assurances that his government itself was not involved in any kind of proliferation activity and "we value those assurances and those actions." "All countries should take steps to confront proliferation. Pakistan is doing that by their actions. Pakistan is acting to stop proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and weapons of mass destruction technology," McClellan said. |
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