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Pakistan: Musharraf Says Nuclear Weapons Are an Option If threatened with an extreme crisis, Pakistan might use nuclear weapons against India, Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said yesterday in an interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel, according to the London Times (see GSN, March 19). “If Pakistan is threatened with extinction, then the pressure of our countrymen would be so big that this option, too, would have to be considered,” he said, referring to nuclear weapons. “Nuclear weapons are the last resort,” Musharraf said. “I am optimistic and confident that we can defend ourselves with conventional means, even though the Indians are buying up the most modern weapons in a megalomaniac frenzy” (Roger Boyes, London Times, April 8). India called Musharraf’s remarks “irresponsible,” and pledged to continue its “no-first-use” policy for nuclear weapons, said an Indian foreign ministry official (Rahul Bedi, Irish Times, April 8). International Cooperation Meanwhile, Pakistan is engaged in an “elaborate dialogue” with the United States and the International Atomic Energy Agency, a senior Pakistani foreign ministry official told Japan’s Kyodo news agency Saturday, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency. The dialogue, which began in November, is designed to strengthen Pakistan’s command and control system over its nuclear arsenal and to prevent proliferation of Pakistan’s nuclear material and technology, the official said (Islamic Republic News Agency, April 7).
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