Following reports about North Korea supplying nuclear weapons technology to Pakistan, a former US official at the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) has said that Saudi Arabia has been financing Islamabad's nuclear and missile program purchases from China.
Quoting reports, DIA's senior China analyst Thomas Woodrow said in a research paper that "Saudi Arabia has been involved in funding Pakistan's missile and nuclear program purchases from China, which has resulted in Pakistan becoming a nuclear weapon-producing and proliferating state".
According to the paper, there was also a probability that Riyadh was "buying nuclear-capability from China through a proxy state with Pakistan serving as the cut-out."
Stating that Saudi Defence Minister Prince Sultan had "toured the uranium-enrichment plant and missile production facilities in Kahuta" in Pakistan just after the May 1999 nuclear tests, Woodrow said the Saudi Minister "may also have been present in Pakistan" during the test-launch of its nuclear-capable Ghauri missile.
"If Riyadh's influence over Pakistan extends to its nuclear programs, Saudi Arabia could rapidly become a de facto nuclear power through a simple shipment of missiles and warheads," the former DIA officer said, according to Hindustan Times.
He said: "What in essence has happened is that Saudi Arabia has given money to China for Pakistan's missile and nuclear programmes".
On the Sino-Saudi connection, he said the involvement of the "Sultan branch of Saudi royal family" in the missile dealings with Beijing was done "for the money and possibly to gain access to an Islamic bomb." (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
