Obama says US has no designs on Pak nukes

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

By Anwar Iqbal and Masood Haider
Tuesday, 13 Apr, 2010

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama has assured Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani that his country has ‘no sinister designs’ on Pakistan’s nuclear programme.

The assurance, given at a meeting between the two leaders on Sunday, also included a declaration of confidence in Pakistan’s capability to defend its nuclear installations.

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, while briefing journalists on the meeting, said President Obama also reminded the Pakistani leader that in a recent statement he had tried do away with all the suspicions about Pakistan’s capability to protect its nuclear arsenals.

“I feel confident that Pakistan has secured its nuclear weapons,” Mr Obama said. “I am concerned about nuclear security all around the world, not just in Pakistan but everywhere.”

The US president then assured the Pakistani leader that his country had no plan at all of harming Pakistan’s nuclear programme.

“Have no fear, we have no sinister designs,” he said.

Later, Prime Minister Gilani told journalists at a dinner he hosted for them that he had thanked President Obama for “his expression of firm confidence in our nuclear programme”.

He said he reassured the US leader that “Pakistan’s nuclear assets are in safe hands”.

Mr Gilani said he had come to the nuclear summit with a mandate from the entire nation, including the ruling and opposition parties both in Pakistan and Azad Kashmir. “All political parties support the Pakistani nuclear programme and want its protection,” he added.

The prime minister said he attached highest priority to Pakistan’s security and “that remains the central focus of my deliberations here at the summit”.

Also, on the day leaders from 47 nations began their two-day deliberations in Washington on how to curb nuclear weapons; the US media warned that America’s nuclear deal with India has accelerated a dangerous arms race in South Asia.

Interestingly, The New York Times chose the day also to highlight a two-week old report that Pakistan has completed its second plutonium production reactor at Khushab.

The newspaper reported that President Obama used his meeting with Prime Minister Gilani to “express disappointment” that Pakistan was blocking the opening of negotiations on a treaty that would halt production of new nuclear material around the world.

This referred to Pakistan’s position on the Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty, which could ban the production of such materials, and require acceptance of IAEA inspections to verify that treaty obligations were met.

Pakistan wants the proposed treaty also to address asymmetry in nuclear stockpiles, instead of focussing on future productions alone.

Islamabad fears that an FMCT which does not address these concerns will only freeze the current inequality between India and Pakistan.

While claiming that the new Khushab reactor will greatly increase Pakistan’s capability to produce nuclear fuel, the NYT also noted that the Pakistanis insist that they have no choice.

The newspaper noted that a nuclear deal that India signed with the US during the Bush administration ended a long moratorium on providing India with the fuel and technology.

“The agreement frees up older facilities that India can devote to making its own new generation of weapons, escalating one arms race even as President Obama and President Dmitri Medvedev of Russia sign accords to shrink arsenals built during the cold war.”

Asked about the production, Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani, told NYT: “Pakistan looks forward to working with the international community to find the balance between our national security and our contributions to international non-proliferation efforts.”

The newspaper, however, noted that American officials are not wiling to talk about India-Pakistan nuclear arms race at the summit meeting because they believe that it would be “too politically divisive”.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Gilani told US journalists on Monday that Pakistan was seeking a civil nuclear deal with the US, like the one it signed with India, to meet its energy requirements.

He said that Pakistan faced an acute shortage of energy and wanted to utilise all possible resources, including nuclear energy, to increase its production.