U.S. seeks assurances from Pakistan over A.Q. Khan
09 Feb 2009 19:03:30 GMT Source: Reuters
By Sue Pleming WASHINGTON, Feb 9 (Reuters) - The United States has sought "solid" assurances from Pakistan it will take steps to prevent freed nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan from nuclear proliferation in the future, a senior U.S. official said on Monday. U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan Anne Patterson met Pakistani government officials on Sunday to express U.S. concern over the Pakistani High Court ruling on Friday that declared Khan a free citizen, said a senior State Department official. Khan, revered by many Pakistanis as the father of the country's atomic bomb, confessed to selling nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya in 2004 but was immediately pardoned by the government. His movements were restricted to effective house arrest before last week's court ruling. "They have given us assurances that he will not be any kind of a danger with regard to proliferation but we want to make sure that these assurances are solid and that they can explain to us how they plan to do that," said the official, who spoke on condition he was not named. "We want to make sure that they live up to their word," he added. Asked what action Washington wanted, the official cited the example of further restricting Khan's movements, adding that the nuclear scientist already had to notify the government 48 hours in advance if he wanted to travel outside of Islamabad. "I am sure there is more that Pakistan can do and we expect and hope they will do more to ensure he is no longer a proliferation risk," he added. The U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, also was expected to raise the issue during talks in Islamabad on Monday and Tuesday with Pakistani officials as part of his tour of the region, said State Department spokesman Robert Wood. "We're going to do what we can to try to make sure that the types of activities that have been undertaken in the past don't continue," Wood told reporters. "He remains a potential proliferation risk," he added. The court ruling ending five years of house arrest for the man at the center of the world's most serious nuclear proliferation scandal in Islamabad. Last month, the United States slapped sanctions on Khan and a dozen others as well as three private companies because of their involvement in the nuclear proliferation network associated with the Pakistani scientist. Those sanctions followed a multiyear U.S. government review of information regarding what it said was Khan's international network for the proliferation of nuclear equipment and know-how. Last year, a U.N. nuclear watchdog said the A.Q. Khan network smuggled nuclear weaponization blueprints to Iran, Libya and North Korea and was active in 12 countries. Wood said U.S. sanctions would remain despite the Pakistani court ruling. "We have to do what we can to make sure that, you know, weapons of mass destruction and other types of weapons that can do harm are not able to proliferate," said Wood. (Editing by David Wiessler)
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