Former Pakistani Army Chief Gen Aslam Beg had threatened to transfer nuclear technology to Iran in 1989 if Washington cut off arms sales to Pakistan, the just released dossier on the Dr A Q Khan network has revealed.
The dossier quoted former US ambassador to Pakistan, Robert Oakley and Assistant Secretary of Defence Henry Rown about the threat made by Gen Beg.
The dossier on "Nuclear black markets: the AQ Khan network" was prepared by International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS).
Islamabad May 4 - Former Pakistani Army Chief Gen Aslam Beg had threatened to transfer nuclear technology to Iran in 1989 if Washington cut off arms sales to Pakistan, the just released dossier on the Dr A Q Khan network has revealed.
The dossier quoted former US ambassador to Pakistan, Robert Oakley and Assistant Secretary of Defence Henry Rown about the threat made by Gen Beg.
The dossier on "Nuclear black markets: the AQ Khan network" was prepared by International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS).
Oakley claimed that Beg agreed to abandon the deal at his urging and that prime minister Nawaz Sharif and president Ghulam Ishaq Khan told Iranian president Hashemi Rafsanjani that the deal had not been approved by the president or parliament and that Pakistan would not implement it.
The dossier said Rafsanjani had sought the consent of ex-prime minister Benazir Bhutto to execute a $6 billion deal for the purchase of nuclear weapons technology that Gen Beg had negotiated with Tehran in 1989.
It also revealed that after departure of Gen Beg, a new deal was also concluded between the then Army chief Gen Asif Nawaz, Rafsanjani and Gen Mohsen Rezai, Head of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, in exchange for Iranian oil.
The dossier said after the death of Gen Zia in 1988 and Khomeini in 1989, new leaderships emerged in each country that were much more inclined towards mutual cooperation on a wide range of issues.
In Pakistan, the dossier said Gen Beg, the new Army chief, openly supported the Iran cause and suggested that Pakistan cooperate with Iran, Afghanistan and any new Islamic republic that emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union, in an alliance of sorts organised around "strategic defiance" of the US and its western allies. The dossier said Beg also has been an ardent supporter of Iran's bid to acquire nuclear weapons. Although, the dossier said, Gen Beg's direct involvement is unconfirmed and he denies this, he is widely suspected of having been an accomplice, if not encouragement or even outright direction.
The dossier also said that two unnamed former high-level Pakistani officials were reported as saying that in 1989, President Rafsanjani sought Benazir Bhutto's consent regarding a deal for nuclear weapons technology that Beg had initiated. The two officials said she told both Rafsajani and Beg that she did not approve of it.
Beg was quoted as saying that by Bhutto's own account it was she who had been approached by the Iranians with a similar proposition for a USD 4 billion transfer. Beg also said Iran was ready to pay USD 6 billion or more. This price, according to the dossier, however, seems exaggerated, as it is very much higher than Khan's 1987 and 1993 enrichment deals with Iran.
Although, the dossier said, Beg denies having authorised any onward proliferation from Pakistan to Iran, he has confirmed that serious nuclear discussions took place between the two nations at the time. According to an unnamed former cabinet minister, these talks continued after Benazir's departure from office in 1990.
Several sources have reported that an agreement was reached in 1991 between Gen Asif Nawaz, Rafsanjani and Gen Mohsen Rezai, which involved the Pakistani nuclear weapons-related technology in return for Iran oil.
