From the new World Media Watch up now at
http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical4//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong Mar 19, 2005
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/GC19Df03.html US NOT FINISHED WITH PAKISTAN YET
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
KARACHI - The United States is exerting maximum pressure on Pakistan to provide a detailed and "authentic" list of all of its nuclear cooperation with Iran over the years.
Contacts in the highest echelon of Pakistan's strategic quarters tell Asia Times Online that during her visit to Islamabad on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice appraised Pakistan of the latest - and strong - US demands.
Many in the Bush administration believe that Iran's nuclear energy program is a smokescreen for developing nuclear weapons. Tehran has agreed with the European Union and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that it will temporarily suspend its uranium enrichment program.
Last week, Pakistan publicly admitted that Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, the mastermind of the country's nuclear program, had given centrifuges - rather than just blueprints - to Iran as part of a package of materials that could be used to make a nuclear bomb, but only in "his personal capacity". Centrifuges are used to enrich uranium.
Now the US wants hard evidence of this and all of Pakistan's other dealings so that it can build its case against Iran. This will include full scrutiny of Pakistan's nuclear program, especially from the late 1980s until the early 1990s, when Pakistan developed the nuclear device, which it eventually tested in 1998.
Importantly, and to the consternation of Pakistan, the US demand includes direct access and interrogation of Pakistan's former chief of army staff, General Aslam Beg, who has on many occasions openly endorsed nuclear cooperation with Iran, former president Ghulam Ishaq Khan (August 17, 1988 until July 18, 1993) and Dr Khan.
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