Pakistan upset by U.S.-India nuke deal

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AR offers an explanation for why the Pakistanis are reacting with such concern: it’s very negative because Pakistan has been left out of such agreements. The army in particular is upset with this deal and that’s one reason for tension between Pakistan and the U.S. on the terrorism issue because the army feels the Bush administration has sided with India. (Critics of the deal say this is undermining the effort to control the spread of nuclear weapons. Pakistan does not have a good track record when it comes to proliferation, given A.Q. Khan made his home in Pakistan.) That is a major reason. What Pakistan was hoping for is some sort of sweetening alternative, such as the U.S. nudging India along to resolve some its border disputes with Pakistan, then I think there would be a different move in Pakistan. (How ambitious is Pakistan’s nuclear development program and where would they go?) It’s very ambitious, and the Army’s General Chief of Staff has just come back from China where they were discussing nuclear deals. (Should the U.S. expect any negative repercussions from Pakistan in terms of cooperation in fighting the war on terrorism because of this deal with India?) The relationship between the U.S. and Pakistan on the terrorism front is already bad and this will make it worse. There’s a large amount of anti-terrorism in Pakistan right now, especially in the military.

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