Pakistan's maligned nuclear scientist A. Q. Khan has revealed in an interview that nuclear material and equipment were supplied to Iran. “Be it Libya, Iran, or Pakistan, the same suppliers were responsible for providing the material through the same third party in Dubai,” Khan said in an interview with Aaj News Television in Urdu. He said Sri Lankan Muslims based in Dubai were the suppliers. “It was a company with which we had established links when we could not receive the material from Europe. They were Sri Lankan Muslims,” Khan said in his interview in Urdu, aired in Karachi Aug.31. The Directorate of National Intelligence's Open Source Center translated the interview into English, which has not been made public yet. However, a copy of it was obtained by the Secrecy News of the Federation of American Students (FAS). Khan explained why nuclear technology was supplied to Iran: “Since Iran was an important Muslim country, we wished Iran to acquire this technology. Western countries pressured us unfairly.” “If Iran succeeds in acquiring nuclear technology, we will be a strong bloc in the region to counter international pressure. Iran's nuclear capability will neutralize Israel's power. We had advised Iran to contact the suppliers and purchase equipment from them.” Khan, who was recently released from house arrest recently, said Pakistan's nuclear program was overlooked by the United States in its initial year since Pakistan was involved in the Afghan war against Soviet Union, which resulted in making the bomb in a quick period of six years. “Pakistan was ready to test a nuclear weapon just six years after it first began to enrich uranium.” “It was 6 April 1978 when we achieved our first centrifugal enrichment of uranium. We had achieved 90% (enrichment) by early 1983,” he said. “I wrote a letter to General Zia on 10 December 1984, telling him that the weapon was ready and that we could detonate it on a notice of one week,” Khan said. “But Zia decided against testing the bomb.” “We were allying with the United States in the Afghan war. The aid was coming. We asked Gen. Zia and his team to go ahead with the test, but they said they could not conduct the test as it would have serious repercussions. They argued that since the United States had to overlook our nuclear program due to our support in the Afghan war, it was an opportunity for us to further develop the program. They said the tests could be conducted any time later,” Khan said, according to the translation of the transcripts of the interview. Khan, who was put under house arrest by the previous Musharraf regime, conceded that that he went to North Korea twice in 1994 and 1999. But he denied that Pakistan transferred nuclear technology to North Korea in exchange for missile technology. “In 1999, Gen Musharraf sent me along with Gen Iftikhar, who was the then chief of Air Defense Command. We were fighting India at Kargil, and we were in dire need of antiaircraft missiles. Musharraf said that we could purchase the missiles from North Korea. We went to North Korea and purchased 200 missiles from them,” Khan said in the interview. When asked by the interviewer Nadeem Malik whether former president Pervez Musharraf should be put on trial, Khan replied: “Yes, a trial must be held against him. Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti's murder, Red Mosque operation, and Musharraf's action against the Supreme Court judges are just a few of his crimes.”
