No India-type nuclear deal for Pakistan: US
52 viewsBy abbasmushtaq - Thu Apr 08, 8:57 pm
Hours after Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said that his country “qualifies” for a civilian nuclear deal with the US, like that of India, the Obama administration in a blunt message told it that such a deal is not on platter of its talks with Islamabad.
“We are focused on Pakistan’s energy needs, but, as we said last week, right now that does not include civilian nuclear energy,” Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs PJ Crowley told reporters.
Crowley reiterated that US has full confidence in the safety and security of nuclear weapons in Pakistan.
“I think various US leaders have expressed confidence in the security of the Pakistani weapons. I’m not going to go any further than that,” he said.
Earlier in the day, another Obama administration official said it favours a new global civil-nuclear architecture allowing countries to meet their energy needs without posing proliferation risk.
“The Obama administration has favoured new international civil nuclear-energy architecture, an architecture that allows countries around the world to benefit from the peaceful uses of nuclear energy without increasing proliferation risks,” Robert J Einhorn, Special US Advisor for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Arms Control, said.
“Ideas have been put forward, like fuel-supply assurances, international fuel banks. These are designed to give countries more options, to give them more access to the nuclear fuels they need to run a nuclear-energy program, a nuclear-power program. We have supported these international fuel banks to do that,” Einhorn told foreign journalists at a news conference.
