Barbara Ferguson, Arab News Correspondent

WASHINGTON, 24 October 2003 — The US has dismissed reports suggesting that Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have concluded a secret agreement on “nuclear cooperation.”

“We’ve seen them (the reports), we’ve seen the allegations. We have not seen, however, any information to substantiate what would seem to us to be rather bald assertions,” State Department deputy spokesman J. Adam Ereli said at his regular briefing here.

He said, “We are confident that Pakistan clearly understands our concerns regarding proliferation of nuclear technology, and we would also note that Saudi Arabia is a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), under which it has agreed not to obtain nuclear weapons.”

Replying to reporters’ questions on whether the US had approached either government for “ascertaining whether these reports are true, or is this general policy,” Ereli said, “This is our general policy. I would say, without referring specifically to these reports, the issue of non-proliferation is something that is part of our ongoing dialogue with many countries.”

He said he had seen newspaper reports that the US raised the issue in conversations with Pakistan. “To that, I would say we regularly raise the full range of issues and it’s not something that we’re going to get into of whether that or this issue was raised in this meeting or that meeting,” he said.

Meanwhile, the allegations by unnamed sources that Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are involved in a secret nuclear pact have been slammed by regional expert.

Dr. Rifaat Hussain, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Defense and Strategic Studies at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad, said Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have collaborated with each other in conventional fields of training Saudi pilots, cooperation between the navies of the two countries, supplying conventional weapons and the training of the Saudi security forces. Pakistan has also been encouraging foreign investors, including Saudi Arabia, to engage in joint military ventures with Pakistan for the production of tanks and aircraft.

But Pakistan has not agreed to any cooperation with Saudi Arabia in the nuclear field, Hussain said. “This is consistent with Pakistan’s long-standing policy not to export its nuclear and missile technology to any other country.”

“There have been instances of Pakistan cooperation with North Korea, but that was strictly in the field of missile development,” Hussain told Arab News during a brief visit to Washington.

Asked about the story in the Washington Times alleging a “secret pact” between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, Hussain said: “My reaction is that yes, Pakistan would like to help Saudi Arabia develop and strengthen its conventional military capabilities, particularly in regards to missiles, tanks and artillery.”

After Sept. 11, he said, the gradual withdrawal of the American security umbrella from Saudi Arabia, made “Riyadh feel strategically vulnerable and it wants to strengthen its defense capabilities by deepening and broadening its defense cooperation with Muslim countries such as Pakistan. Crown Prince Abdullah and Prince Sultan’s visit to Pakistan has to be seen in that light.”

There is not, he said, any evidence to suggest that Saudi Arabia will have access to Pakistani nuclear technology.

“As a signatory of the NPT, Saudi Arabia does have the sovereign right to seek nuclear technology for peaceful purposes,” he added. Israel, he said, poses the real threat in the region. “As long as Israel remains in possession of nuclear offensive sophistical missile delivery systems — Muslim states, including Saudi Arabia, will continue to feel threatened and hence, will look for ways to augment their defense capabilities.”

Asked about allegations of an agreement between Islamabad and Riyadh on weapons-for-oil, Hussain said: “We have a special arrangement with Saudi Arabia under which Riyadh has been supplying oil to Pakistan on a concessionary rate, but there are no oil-for-weapon agreements between the two countries.”

He slammed the Washington Times’ allegations of a secret nuclear pact between the two countries. “Both governments have denied it and the sources quoted in the Washington Times story are unnamed, and therefore highly questionable for their veracity.”