Report: Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan aided Iran
Evidence released this week shows his nuclear-secrets network may still be active.
from the May 4, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
Those revelations are likely to embarrass Pakistan once again, and reheat tensions on this already-shaky dimension of US-Pakistani relations, analysts say.
"It will be a greater embarrassment, put Pakistan in a greater corner," say Ayesha Siddiqa, an independent defense analyst in Islamabad, who added that the pressure from Washington is unlikely to be significant given the US reliance on Pakistan's cooperation in regional politics.
The report comes as lawmakers in Washington, amid growing tension with Iran over its nuclear program, highlighted in March the grave need to get at Khan, who is currently under house arrest and inaccessible to foreign authorities. Khan alone may know the truth about Tehran's weapons program.
But Washington can't hope to reach Khan, who is a national hero in Pakistan, observers here contend. Giving him up is likely to inflame a population already angered by Islamabad's towing of the American line. The more Washington pushes, the more President Musharraf's administration, for reasons of political stability, will have to refuse, many say.
That thought troubled many at a congressional hearing last month.
"We have only purported information from Khan passed to us by the government of Pakistan, a government which in one breath places him under house arrest and in the next celebrates him as a national hero," Rep. Gary L. Ackerman (D) of New York told a hearing on March 21 of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on US policy toward Pakistan.
The IISS's report favorably notes that Pakistan took steps to neutralize Khan's immediate network and to safeguard its nuclear weapons.
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