Now, Pak wants a nuclear deal with US
The Times of India
Now, Pak wants a nuclear deal with US too
31 Jul 2008, 0852 hrs IST
NEW DELHI: Ahead of the IAEA meeting on Friday, Pakistan has demanded nuclear deal similar to the one Washington has made with India.
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said at a gathering under the aegis of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Middle East Institute: "there should be no preferential, there should be no discrimination. And if they want to give civilian nuclear status to India, we would also expect the same for Pakistan too".
"For us, national security is supreme and the government will do everything in its power to defend it," says Mohammed Sadiq, spokesperson, Pakistan Foreign Office.
Meanwhile, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), US has confronted Pakistan with new evidence about ties between the country's spy service with some militant groups responsible for rising violence in Afghanistan, possibly including suicide bombing at the Indian embassy in Kabul earlier this month.
A top official of CIA secretly travelled to Islamabad this month and confronted Pakistan's senior officials with new information about deepening ties between the ISI and the militants operating in tribal areas, the New York Times said quoting American military and intelligence officials.
CIA's deputy director Stephen R Kappes’ secret visit to Pakistan on July 12, along with Adm Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, was described by several American military and intelligence officials in interviews to the daily, who made it clear that they welcomed the decision by the CIA to take a harder line toward the ISI's dealings with militant groups.
The meetings took place days after a suicide bomber attacked the Indian embassy in Kabul, killing dozens. Afghanistan's government has publicly accused the ISI of having a hand in the attack, an assertion American officials have not corroborated, the paper said.
The decision to have Kappes deliver the message about the spy service could be a sign of deteriorating relationship between the CIA and the ISI, which has long been marked by mutual suspicion and dependence, the report said.
The CIA has depended heavily on the ISI for information about militants in Pakistan, despite longstanding concerns about divided loyalties within the Pakistani spy service, which had close relations with Taliban in Afghanistan before the September 11 attacks.
We already gave them the bomb. Now they need to get off their bum and get to work. Why always the cart before the horse?
I agree, I dont expect it to happen as Pakistan's long-term stability isn't guaranteed at present. In fact the new nuclear deal with India may be a kind of insurance policy for the possibility of Pakistan descending in to any kind of political turmoil in the future. I do think, however, that Pres. Musharraf still has a lot of leverage with the U.S. administration, though whether this will be the case with the subsequent administration is unclear.
ain't gonna happen
That would be a disaster.