NYT: Rice Seeks Details on Pakistani's Nuclear Help to Iran (A.Q. Khan)

Rice Seeks Details on Pakistani's Nuclear Help to Iran
By JOEL BRINKLEY and STEVEN R. WEISMAN

Published: March 16, 2005


NEW DELHI, March 15 - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice plans to press President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan for more information on the help a rogue Pakistani scientist, A. Q. Khan, is believed to have given Iran to develop a nuclear weapons program, a senior administration official said Tuesday.

Speaking on the eve of talks that Ms. Rice plans to hold with Indian and Pakistani leaders on the first leg of her trip to Asia, the official said that Pakistan had been helpful in the past on sharing information from its own investigation of Dr. Khan, but that the administration wanted more....

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The official did not specify what sort of information the United States wanted. But there is heightened interest in what European and American officials have said was a document recently turned over to international investigators showing that Iran had discussed with Dr. Khan's network the possibility of acquiring nuclear weapons technologies some 18 years ago.

A European diplomat said last month that the discussions had included an offer by Mr. Khan's representatives to provide technologies that included the process of casting uranium metal, a critical step toward making a bomb....

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The Bush administration has used a conciliatory approach toward Pakistan since the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, choosing to overlook or play down irritants - like the lack of cooperation on the A.Q. Khan investigation and the slowness of General Musharraf to return his country to democracy - because of cooperation that Pakistan has extended in combating Al Qaeda and the Taliban. At the same time, however, mounting concerns about Iran's suspected nuclear weapons ambitions have sharpened the need to push Pakistan for more help in addressing that problem, administration officials say....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/16/international/asia/16pakistan.html