As I’ve written here before, I believe settling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is essential if the United States wants to dry up support for anti-American terrorism around the world. But there is another reason to do so: Iran’s relentless pursuit of nuclear weapons that it can use to threaten Israel and expand its own influence over the Middle East.
Although there are some who believe Iran is not actually trying to develop a nuclear weapons programme and is merely using the threats to keep its enemies off balance, evidence has recently emerged which should put to rest any doubts about Iran’s true intentions. But equally disturbing is the fact that Pakistan’s top officials – America’s erstwhile allies in the ‘war against terror’ – were responsible for getting Iran’s nuclear weapons program off the ground.
The father of Pakistan’s nukes, Abdul Qadeer Khan, has now provided official documents as well as a first-person account of Iran’s repeated attempts since the late 1980s to first buy a bomb from Pakistan and, failing that, to purchase the technology they needed to build their own weapon.
While Pakistan did not test any nuclear bombs until 1998, American and British intelligence officials claim that it built its first nuclear weapon in 1986. Pakistan still refuses to comment on these claims, but Iran has already told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors that it was a Pakistani “network” that provided them with the specifications and equipment it needed to build uranium enrichment centrifuges to produce material for their own weapon.
But when Iran’s Ali Shamkhani returned to Pakistan in 1988 to retrieve the three nuclear bombs they had been promised, he discovered that this was a promise Pakistan was no longer willing to honour. In the interim, General Zia ul Haq had been replaced as Pakistan’s leader by Benazir Bhutto, and the new chairman of Pakistan’s Joint Chiefs of Staff was Admiral Iftikhar Ahmed Sirohey, who put Iran’s nuclear ambitions at the bottom of the agenda.
However, Shamkhani was not to leave empty handed. In response to his pressure, Khan says he was told by Bhutto’s military aide to get the components for two of Pakistan’s old first-generation P-1 uranium enrichment centrifuges “and pack them into boxes with two sets of drawings” to send to Iran through an intermediary.
Today the IR-1 centrifuges Iran is currently using to enrich uranium are virtual replicas of the P-1 designs Kahn provided back in 1989. But Pakistan’s secret assistance to Iran’s nuclear weapons program didn’t stop there. The covert Pakistan ‘network’ continued to provide information, including the names and addresses of companies supplying Pakistan with bomb parts and centrifuge components.
Even though Pakistan hasn’t provided any further assistance to Iran’s nuclear weapons program for the past five years, the damage has already been done. The IAEA says Iran has already admitted the new IR-2 centrifuges they plan to install in their new underground facilities in Qum are based on designs for Pakistan’s more advanced P-2 centrifuge that were secretly given to Iran in 2004.
But even if one chooses to ignore Iran’s clandestine nuclear dealings, Kahn’s ‘insider’ story totally contradicts the claim by Iran’s President Ahmadinejad that they don’t build nuclear weapons because “we don’t believe in having them”. I and many other observers are convinced that the closer Iran gets to acquiring enough uranium for a nuclear bomb, the closer the world gets to a deadly confrontation. Why? Because Israel won’t hesitate to strike first.
Charles Laffiteau is a US Republican from Dallas, Texas who is pursuing a PhD in International Relations and lectures on Contemporary US Business & Society at DCU
