AQ rendered 'ineffective: Pak diplomat

WASHINGTON - Dr AQ Khans remarks that Pakistan helped Iran acquire the nuclear technology with the aim to jointly emerge as a strong bloc in the region have been played up in the American press amid Washington-Tehran tensions over the Iranian nuclear programme.
The Washington Post posted paged the nuclear scientists remarks given to a private Pakistani television channel that the move was also aimed at countering international pressure and neutralise Israeli power.
But his remarks drew a quick response from the Pakistan Embassy in here. An embassy spokesman, Nadeem Kiyani, emphasised that Dr Khan has no official status and that Pakistan does not want proliferation of nuclear weapons in the region.
These are the views of a person who has been rendered ineffective, and his network has been completely shut up, Kiyani said.
Stephen Cohen, a proliferation expert at the Brookings Institution, said Khan has always threatened to tell more perhaps who authorised the transfer of designs and samples of technology, if not more, to several states. But he said Dr appeared to hold back a lot in the interview.
The United States has been leading the campaign to pressure Iran into giving up its nuclear programme, accusing it of harbouring ambitions to produce nuclear weapons. Iran has all along maintained that its nuclear programme is geared to peaceful purposes, not weapon-oriented.