Senate Chairman Mian Raza Rabbani admitted an adjournment motion moved by Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) Senator Hafiz Hamdullah despite government’s opposition, with directives that the house would hold a through debate on the issue by next Tuesday. Citing an interview of US Secretary of State John Kerry to a foreign news channel, Senator Hamdullah said that Saudi Arabia could buy nuclear bomb from Pakistan, Daily Times reports.
Amid mounting tension between Saudi Arabia and Iran, he said, Riyadh could buy nuclear weapons from Pakistan. Any such move would destabilize the Middle East as well as Pakistan, he said. “The reports say that Saudi Arabia has good relations with Pakistan. If media reports are to be believed, Riyadh may buy a nuclear bomb from Pakistan. It will be very dangerous for our security,” the JUI-F senator maintained.
Federal Minister for Commerce and Trade Khurram Dastgir Khan opposed the adjournment motion, saying a local newspaper misquoted the US secretary of state. He read out the questions asked by the CNN interviewer and Kerry’s replies to those questions to support his contention that Kerry was misquoted. “Kerry did not mention even the name of Pakistan,” he said.
Saudi Arabia has announced it has had nuclear weapons for more than two years and plans to test one soon in response the growing military threat from Iran and Russia.
“Yes, we have a nuclear bomb,” Saudi political analyst Dahham Al-‘Anzi told RT on February 15. “To put it simply, yes.”
“This is not breaking news, the superpowers have known about this for years,” Al-‘Anzi said bluntly.
News that Saudi Arabia was shopping for nukes from Pakistan began last January. At the time, U.S.
Secretary of State John Kerry publicly warned the countries that there would be “all kinds of NPT [Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty] consequences” if any such plan went through.
Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir responded by saying his country “is committed to two things. I always say two things we do not negotiate over, our faith and our security. Saudi Arabia will do whatever it takes in order to protect our nation and our people from any harm. And I will leave it at that.”
Al-‘Anzi’s claim of Saudi nukes was confirmed by the founding director of the CIA’s Counter-terrorism sector, Duane Clarridge, who said the country has between 4-7 nuclear weapons that can be delivered by either F-15 planes or a recently-purchased Chinese missile system.
Saudi Arabia was the financier of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program in the 1970’s. As a result, Clarridge said, the Saudis were able to get nuclear weapons from Pakistan.