0100440001-2
wers
By Bob Woodward
and Don Oberdorfer
Washington Post Staff Writers
The United States and the Soviet
Union have engaged in some unpub-
licized tough
talk during the past
moittjh
over
growing
indications
that Pakistan’s nuclear program has
moved
far along the path toward
production of an atomic bomb, ac-
cording to administration sources.
The discussion was generated by
a direct and unusually tough Soviet
warning to Pakistan about
its nu-
clear activities, the sources said, in-
cluding a charge that the Pakistanis
are on the verge of constructing a
nuclear bomb, which Moscow indi-
cated it would not tolerate.
The Reagan
administration, on
learning of the warning, responded
with a private message to Moscow
reiterating the strong U.S. commit-
ment to Pakistan’s security. One of-
ficial described the message as ex-
tremely grave and said that Wash-
ington,
in
effect,
told Moscow to
keep “hands off’ Pakistan.
A well-placed intelligence source
said that Central Intelligence Agen-
cy analysis shows that Pakistan has
or soon
will have the capacity to
build a bomb, despite official denials
by
Pakistan.
Sources
said
long-
standing
Pakistani
nuclear
efforts
have increased this year. According
to one account, it is just a matter of
assembling components.
The security of Pakistan as well
as its highly secretive nuclear pro-
gram are likely to be discussed dur-
ing the visit of Pakistani Prime Min-
ister Mohammad Khan Junejo, who
is to arrive late today on his first of-
ficial visit to Washington.
[Details
on Page A13].
Junejo,
whose
civilian
govern-
ment was installed last Dec. 30 af-
See PAKISTAN, A13, CoL 1
U.S., Soviets Spar Over Pakistan Bomb
PAKISTAN, From A1
ter
nearly
nine
years
of
military
rule,
is to meet President Reagan
Wednesday morning and see other
senior
administration
figures
as
well as members of Congress be-
fore departing Friday.
Pakistan
is particularly sensitive
for both superpowers because of its
geography
bordering
Afghanistan
and because nearly
all of the U.S.
covert
assistance
to
the
Afghani-
stan resistance fighting the Soviet
army flows through Pakistan, with
Pakistani permission.
The Soviets have issued a num-
ber of stern warnings to Pakistan to
stop that flow
in the past several
years, and Soviet warplanes based
in
Afghanistan
have
repeatedly
crossed the
border
into
Pakistani
The immediate impetus
for the
recent Soviet warning to Pakistan is
believed by Washington officials to
have been the
visit to Moscow in
mid-June by Indian Foreign Minis-
ter P. Shiv Shankar, who reportedly
complained vociferously about Pak-
istan’s nuclear efforts.
Moscow’s
warning,
which
was
delivered by the Soviet ambassador
in
the
Pakistani
capital
of
Isla-
mabad,
also covered the Afghani-
stan issues.
It was considered par-
ticularly
important,
though,
be-
cause of the nuclear aspect, which
had not been a matter of urgency in
other recent Moscow-Islamabad ex-
changes.
Pakistan’s well-advanced nuclear
program, which goes back well over
a decade, is a touchy issue in Wash-
ington.
The
Carter
administration
strongly condemned Pakistan's se-
airspace,
bringing
protests
from
Washington as *%11 as IslaA^rOvedeFeOfferRfcl©38 6h 2AQ04Q>8i/08
and cut off U.S. aid to Pakistan be-
cause of them.
The
Reagan
administration,
which began a $3.2 billion Pakistan
aid program in 1981, has been re-
quired by Congress to certify an-
nually that Pakistan does not “pos-
sess” an atomic bomb. A stronger
assurance may be required to per-
suade Congress to approve a new
$4
billion U.S.
aid program nego-
tiated with Pakistan this March.
White House national security af-
fairs adviser John M. Poindexter is
concerned,
according
to
sources,
that the administration may not be
able to
certify to Congress as re-
quired
in
October
that
Pakistan
does not “possess” a weapon. High-
level
meetings
have
reportedly
been held in recent days to assess
the
Pakistani
nuclear program
in
light of the most recent U.S. intel-
"^iAjwafefta^ijWipoi
istan] has the bomb or will soon,” a
congressional source said.
Leonard S. Spector, an expert on
nuclear
nonproliferation
issues
at
the Carnegie Endowment for Inter-
national Peace, reported in Novem-
ber that Pakistan is “at the thresh-
old of becoming a nuclear-weapons
state.” Spector said yesterday that
more recent information, which he
said he could not describe in detail,
suggests that “something very se-
rious has happened” in the Pakistani
nuclear program since last winter.
In March the Foreign Report of
The Economist of London cited re-
ports that Pakistan had succeeded
in enriching uranium to 30 percent
at its heavily guarded atomic plant
jggjlftfauta. While this would be well
snort
of
the
percent
level
needed
to make a bomb, such an
achievement would far exceed the 5
percent level reportedly cited in a
confidential letter from Reagan to
Pakistani President Mohammed Zia
ul-Haq
in September 1984 as the
hiahes^ enrichment level acceptable
tes.