Former CIA Officer Reveals: Pakistan's Nuclear Program Designed to Counter India Evolved into "Islamic Bomb" Technology Sharing Network

Washington:

Pakistan developed its nuclear arsenal primarily to counter India's capabilities, but under Abdul Qadeer Khan's leadership, the program evolved into what was called an "Islamic bomb" with intentions to share technology with other Muslim nations, including Iran, according to former CIA counterproliferation officer Richard Barlow.

In his interview with ANI, Barlow, who worked at the intelligence agency during Pakistan's secret nuclear development in the 1980s, revealed how Khan's network provided crucial gas centrifuge technology and possibly nuclear weapons designs to Iran in the early 1990s, advancing Tehran's nuclear program by decades.

Barlow emphasized that while Pakistan's nuclear initiative was a strategic response to India's 1974 nuclear achievement, it also carried broader ideological goals.

"Pakistan's primary motive for developing nuclear weapons was to counter India. But it was also very clear from AQ Khan and the generals' perspective that it was not just the Pakistani bomb; it was the Islamic bomb, the Muslim bomb," Barlow explained.

"I think AQ Khan was even quoted once as saying, 'We've got the Christian bomb, we've got the Jewish bomb, and the Hindu bomb; we need a Muslim bomb.' It was very clear to me that Pakistan intended to provide nuclear weapons technology to other Muslim countries, which is what happened," he added.

Historical records clarify that it was actually Pakistan's Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, not Khan, who called for a "Muslim bomb" and initiated the country's nuclear program with Khan serving as its technical architect.

Khan, born in Bhopal in undivided India in 1936 before migrating to Pakistan after partition in 1952, became one of history's most notorious nuclear proliferators, providing technology to North Korea, Iran, and Libya.

Known as the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb, Khan helped make Pakistan the world's first "Islamic nuclear power" before his death in Islamabad in 2021 at age 85.

Barlow alleged significant negligence in Washington's response to Pakistan's clandestine nuclear activities.

"Not only did they shut down from doing anything about that in 1987 and 1988, but they did nothing for the next 20 to 24 years," he stated.

Regarding Iran's nuclear development, Barlow claimed their progress with gas centrifuge technology was directly enabled by Khan's network.

"There is no way that Iran could ever have developed gas centrifuges without the centrifuges that Khan and Pakistan provided them in the early 1990s, along with nuclear weapons plans," he asserted.

"At the very least, it might have been impossible. This is very difficult work -- making gas centrifuges and nuclear weapons is no small undertaking. It knocked, at the very least, many decades off of the Iranian nuclear programme," he continued.

Barlow noted that while Iran has since made considerable independent progress, the foundation of its nuclear program relied on Pakistani assistance.

"I think now it looks to me like the Iranian programme is quite advanced in terms of their gas centrifuges. They've done a lot of work on their own, but they never could have gotten started without Pakistan's help," the former CIA officer concluded.