Washington, Oct 23: The US State Department today sought to play down a report about cooperation between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to enable the Saudis to build a nuclear bomb, saying it is yet to get "any information to substantiate the allegations." Deputy State Department spokesman J. Adam Ereli said, "We have seen the reports, we have seen the allegations. We have not seen, however, any information to substantiate what would seem to us to be rather bald assertions."
"We are confident that Pakistan clearly understands our concerns regarding proliferation of nuclear technology and we would also note Saudi Arabia is a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, under which it has agreed not to obtain nuclear weapons," he added. Without referring specifically to the report in an American daily, Ereli added, "The issue of nonproliferation is something that is part of our ongoing dialogue with many countries." "We have seen the report (that) it was raised in conversations with Pakistan. To that, I would say we regularly raise a full range of issues, and it is not something we will get into whether this issue was raised or that issue," he said.
Bureau Report