Nuke deal with Pak not possible at this juncture: Rice

Nuke deal with Pak not possible at this juncture: Rice

BY OUR MONITORING DESK
A nuclear deal between Washington and Islamabad is not possible at this juncture as there were “concerns” over Pakistan’s proliferation record, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday night.
“Everyone knows that there have been concerns in terms of proliferation with Pakistan. Pakistan itself is aware of it. We are working with Pakistan to improve on proliferation,” Rice told ‘Zee News’ in an interview.
Asked whether the US could sign a nuclear deal with Pakistan as it did with India when President George Bush visits that country, she said, “This is not a stage Pakistan is currently in ..... This is not the time for such an arrangement with Pakistan.”
However, she said, Washington considered Pakistan and President Pervez Musharraf as a “tremendous ally” in the war on terrorism .... “We must fight terror more robustly. We are working with Musharraf in areas, which are largely ungoverned. Pakistani army and its frontier forces are fighting Al-Qaeda more actively,” she added.
Parrying a question on the Indo-Iran gas pipeline, Rice said both India and the US were very dependent on hydrocarbons for energy supplies and President Bush now favoured allowing all countries to have “clean nuclear energy and civilian nuclear power, regardless of what happens to the pipeline”.

Update: Pakistan wants the same deal

Pakistan not against deal, wants same

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan said on Thursday it was not against a civilian nuclear deal between the United States and India and demanded the same facility for Pakistan. Information Minister Sheikh Rashid told Daily Times that President Musharraf would discuss the possibility of Pakistan-US cooperation in civilian nuclear technology with US President George Bush. “We hope that we will also get the same kind of cooperation,” Foreign Office spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said. Last month Bush urged Pakistan to be patient with US nuclear cooperation with India but did not commit to – or rule out – a similar arrangement with Islamabad in the future. Meanwhile, China said on Thursday that nuclear cooperation between the US and India must conform with the rules of the global non-proliferation regime. shahzad raza