Pakistan has refused to let the UN atomic agency directly interview disgraced nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, father of Pakistan's atomic bomb(AFP/File/Tanveer Mughal)
Thu Sep 30, 6:38 AM ET
VIENNA (AFP) - Pakistan has refused to let the UN atomic agency directly interview disgraced nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, father of Pakistan's atomic bomb and ringleader of a smuggling network that supplied Iran, Libya and North Korea with sensitive nuclear technology, an agency spokesman said.
"The Pakistanis have made it clear that while they will provide the IAEA all information available to them, direct access to Mr. Khan would not be possible," IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky said on Thursday.
It was the first time the IAEA has admitted that Pakistan is refusing to let the agency see Khan, Gwozdecky said.
The IAEA has been asking Pakistan regularly to help it investigate the international black market run by Khan, who confessed last February to passing on nuclear secrets.
"From the beginning, we have made it clear to the Pakistani authorities that we would like the maximum amount of information on the Khan network, including access to any person with such knowledge," Gwozdecky said.
Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud said in Tehran in August that his country was cooperating with the IAEA probe into Iran's suspect nuclear programme but ruled out allowing inspectors into Pakistan as part of the crucial investigation.
He pointed out that Pakistan was not a signatory of the NPT (nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty), which mandates the IAEA to monitor compliance with international atomic safeguards.
IAEA inspectors have found traces of highly-enriched uranium inside Iran, leading to suspicions that Iran has been trying to produce nuclear bombs and not just atomic energy as it insists.
But Tehran maintains the traces found their way into the country on equipment bought from Khan's black market network.
Pakistan's cooperation with the probe is crucial in resolving outstanding questions related to Iran's bid to generate nuclear energy, seen by the United States as a cover for weapons development.
The IAEA wants to take so-called "environmental samples" from Pakistan to compare them with those found in Iran -- crucial in verifying Tehran's claims.
Pakistan has supplied results from sampling it has conducted itself, but has not allowed IAEA inspectors into the country to do their own sampling, IAEA director general Mohamed ElBaradei said in a report earlier this month.
ElBaradei said the IAEA needed results from its own testing to be able to draw definitive conclusions.
Pakistan has refused to let the UN atomic agency directly interview disgraced nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, father of Pakistan's atomic bomb(AFP/File/Tanveer Mughal)