Instead of taking any clear position on the alarming statement by the Iranian president in which he claimed that the US was secretly planning to sabotage Pakistan’s nuclear facilities, the Foreign Office on Wednesday said Pakistan was a nuclear-weapon state and it did not comment on its strategic programme.
“We have precise information that the US wants to sabotage the Pakistani nuclear facilities in order to control Pakistan and to weaken the government and people of Pakistan,” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said at a press conference in Tehran on Tuesday. The statement by the Iranian president, which is also considered the arch foe of the US, created ripples across the country but there was no reaction by Pakistani authorities.
However, a day later, the Foreign Office issued a vague statement neither endorsing Iran’s views nor denying them by saying that Pakistan’s did not agree with the notion. “Pakistan is a nuclear-weapon state. This is an established fact. We do not comment on our strategic programme,” a statement by the FO said. Foreign Office spokeswoman Tehmina Janjua was not available for comment. However, another Pakistani diplomat said keeping in view the close ties between Islamabad and Tehran and Iran’s position in the region, the statement by its president was very significant and it could not be ignored or taken lightly.
He said the statement showed that Iranians authorities were also concerned about the reported threats to Pakistan’s nuclear assets and they looked with unease the interference by the world’s sole super power in Pakistan’s internal affairs.