ISLAMABAD: Perturbed over the inclusion of civil nuclear deal in Pakistan’s agenda for the Pak-US strategic dialogue, the Obama administration asked the government in Islamabad not to raise the vital issue during the parleys prior to the commencement of the dialogue but Pakistan would still bring up the issue.
“Owing to its concerns over nuclear proliferation, the US told Islamabad days before the commencement of the strategic dialogue that any discussions on the Pak-US nuclear deal will be a futile exercise,” a Pakistani diplomat, privy to developments in Islamabad and Washington, told Pakistan Today on Wednesday.
However, he said the Pakistani authorities made it clear that the delegation would still push for the nuclear deal with Washington despite the US concerns in this regard, adding that it was none other than Foreign Affairs Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi who said Islamabad would seek the civil nuclear deal, akin to the US-India nuclear agreement, with the US administration.
“We certainly seek that because we feel that there should be no discrimination,” Qureshi reportedly said. “And that statement by the foreign minister irked the Obama administration to the extent that it decided to come out in the open with one of its official, Frank Ruggiero, US special deputy representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, telling the reporters on the eve of the strategic dialogue that the US was not in any discussions with Pakistan on nuclear cooperation.
Another official said the US authorities were no doubt concerned over the past nuclear proliferation in Pakistan attributed to Dr AQ Khan, adding that off late the Obama administration had also taken exception to reports by some American think tanks that Pakistan was on the path of carrying forward its nuclear programme. He said the US could also attach some conditions to the new security assistance package totalling $2 billion for Pakistan, such as “no diversion of those funds for the development of nuclear programme”.
“We believe that the US authorities should begin trusting its time-tested friendly state and major ally in war on terror and pay no heed to the news reports and so-called researches of think tanks involved in anti-Islamabad propaganda,” the official said.
