Thaindian News

Washington, Sep 26 (ANI): The United States is planning to renew its demand for direct access to Pakistani nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan in a bid to prevent China from building two new nuclear reactors at Chashma in Pakistan, a senior American diplomat has said.

“I intend to raise the question again of our repeated requests to have our people be able to interview Khan,” the Dawn quoted Cameron Munter, the Obama administration’s ambassador-designate for Pakistan, as saying.

However, in his testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Munter acknowledged that it would be difficult to get Pakistan’s permission for Khan’s interrogation.

“This is a key area where, to be honest, I don’t think we’ve made a lot of progress with the Pakistanis,” he noted.

The US believes that Khan ran a ring of nuclear proliferators and supplied nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea. At the Senate hearing, Senator Richard Lugar, the ranking Republican member of the committee and one of the authors of the $7.5 billion Kerry-Lugar-Berman bill for Pakistan, urged Munter to renew American efforts to seek access to Khan. “My understanding is that he is free of house arrest now, still considered in heroic status in Pakistan,” the senator said. “We’ve from time to time lamented the work of AQ Khan and his work with others, for that matter, to spread the technology of nuclear weapons and potential for difficulty in a host of countries,” Lugar said. Meanwhile, US Ambassador to India Timothy J. Roemer has said that he believed the Pak-China nuclear deal might not get approval of the 46-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group. “I am not sure it will happen in Pakistan, given their track record. This is a very important issue in respect to China,” Roemer said. (ANI)