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Defiant Pakistan threatens to use nukes

Pakistan on Wednesday threatened to use nuclear weapons even if India stuck to conventional arms in a conflict.

"India should not have the license to kill with conventional weapons while Pakistan's hands are tied regarding other means to defend itself," said Munir Akram, its new ambassador to the United Nations.

The highly bellicose and provocative statements by Akram surprised diplomats and officials at the UN, who declined to make an immediate comment.

Pakistan, he said, had to rely on the "means it possessed to deter Indian aggression" and would not "neutralise" that deterrence by any doctrine of "no-first-use".

To a question at his first news conference after taking over the job, Akram said any action by India across the border, any aerial attack on Pakistani territory and its assets, and any action to economically strangle it would be "viewed" as aggression and "responded to by Pakistan".

Noting that both India and Pakistan possessed nuclear weapons, he said while that should instil restraint on both sides, "it does not seem to do so on the Indian side".

Akram, who had been his country's ambassador to the UN at Geneva, is known for his rhetoric against India. Earlier, too, he had made highly provocative statements on Kashmir.

Pakistan, Akram claimed, believed in "no-first-use of force" and that was the reason why Islamabad had offered to sign a non-aggression pact with New Delhi.

"If India reserve the right to use conventional weapons, how can Pakistan -- a weaker power -- be expected to rule out all means of deterrence?"

Akarm said the Security Council should address the issues of tensions between India and Pakistan which "constitute a threat to international peace and security".

"Whenever there is a threat of use of force against a member state and a threat to international peace and security, there is an obligation for the Council to address that situation," he told the news conference.

PTI

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