'Take Israel hostage if attacked'
Associated Press, THE JERUSALEM POST May. 13, 2006
Pakistan's former army chief says Iranian officials came to him for
advice on heading off an attack on their nuclear facilities, and he
in effect advised them to take a hostage - Israel.
Retired Gen. Mirza Aslam Beg said he suggested their government
"make it clear that if anything happens to Iran, if anyone attacks
it - it doesn't matter who it is or how it is attacked - that
Iran's answer will be to hit Israel; the only target will be
Israel."
Since Beg spoke in an interview with The Associated Press, echoes
of his thinking have been heard in Iran, though whether they result
directly from his advice isn't known.
Mohammad Ebrahim Dehghani, an Iranian Revolutionary Guards
commander, was quoted last week as saying that if "America does
make any mischief, the first place we target will be Israel." The
threat was disavowed the next day by Brig. Gen. Alireza Afshar,
deputy to the chief of Iran's military staff, who said it was
Dehghani's "personal view and has no validity as far as the Iranian
military officials are concerned."
And on Tuesday, Israel's vice premier, Shimon Peres, warned that
"Those who threaten to destroy are in danger of being
destroyed."
In the AP interview that took place several weeks before these
threats were exchanged, General Beg said a delegation from the
Iranian Embassy in Pakistan had come to his office in January,
seeking advice as Western pressure mounted on Iran to abandon its
nuclear effort. Beg said he offered lessons learned from his
experience dealing with India's nuclear threat.
He said he told the Iranians, whom he did not identify, that
Pakistan had suspected India of collaborating with Israel in
planning an attack on its nuclear facilities. By then, Pakistan had
the bomb too. But both countries had adopted a strategy of
ambiguity, he said, and Pakistan sent an emissary to India to warn
that no matter who attacked it, Pakistan would retaliate against
India.
"We told India frankly that this is the threat we perceive and this
is the action we are taking and the action we will take. It was a
real deterrent," he recalled telling the Iranians.
He said he also advised them to "attempt to degrade the defense
systems of Israel," harass it through the Hamas government of the
Palestinian Authority and the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon, and
put second-strike nuclear weapons on submarines.
Beg also detailed nearly 20 years of Iranian approaches to obtain
conventional arms and then technology for nuclear weapons. He
described an Iranian visit in 1990, when he was army chief of
staff.
"They didn't want the technology. They asked: 'Can we have a bomb?'
My answer was: By all means you can have it but you must make it
yourself. Nobody gave it to us."
Although Beg insisted his government never gave Iran nuclear
weapons, Pakistan now acknowledges that Khan sold Iran centrifuges
to produce weapons-grade uranium, though without his government's
knowledge.
In a televised confession Khan insisted he acted without
authorization in selling nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and
North Korea, saying the proliferation took place between 1989 and
2000.
Beg became army chief of staff in 1988, a year after Pakistan
confirmed CIA estimates that it had nuclear weapons capability. He
served until 1991 and now runs his own think tank. He speaks freely
and in detail about the nuclear issue, but many critical blank
spots remain and the subject remains one of great sensitivity,
clouded by revelations in 2004 that A. Q. Khan, who pioneered
Pakistan's nuclear bomb, sold nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and
North Korea.
Khan has been pardoned by President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, and
Pakistan has refused to hand him over to the United States or the
U.N. nuclear watchdog agency for questioning.
According to Beg, Iran first sent emissaries to Pakistan in the
latter years of its 1980-88 war with Iraq with a shopping list
worth billions of dollars, mostly for spare parts for its air
force. It offered in return to underwrite the development plan of
Gen. Zia-ul Haq, then Pakistan's ruler.
"Gen. Zia did not agree," he said.
Much of what Beg says cannot be independently confirmed, and the
UN's International Atomic Energy Agency did not respond to repeated
requests for comment on Beg's version of events.