Washington, Feb 13: US Secretary of State Colin Powell has taken credit for American diplomacy in many international developments including the recent thaw in Indo-Pak relations and busting of the alleged proliferation network of Pakistani nuclear scientist AQ Khan.
Powell expressed appreciation for the work "the US missions around the world are doing for the American people" at a testimony before the Senate International Relations Committee on Thursday.
"Suddenly, you find a Libya that is willing to give up its weapons of mass destruction.... Suddenly, you go from a situation where India and Pakistan were almost at war with each other 18 months ago and we were worried about nuclear conflagration on the subcontinent, to a point now where they are cooperating with each other and moving forward, and even starting to inch up on the difficult issue of Kashmir," he said.
"And we find that Pakistan feels sufficiently confident in their position, and with our help and pressure, we are dealing with the AQ Khan situation and we are going to get that network all ripped up," Powell said.
Meanwhile, ranking member of the Committee, Joseph Biden, expressed serious doubts on claims that Khan was solely responsible for the proliferation.
"I find the idea — I could be wrong — that the ISI and the Pakistani military had nothing to do with AQ Khan's proliferation activities — I find that absolutely, totally, completely beyond my comprehension," he said. Bureau Report