The Washington Post reports this morning that “on Monday Pakistan test-fired a ballistic missile that appears capable of carrying a nuclear warhead,” the Shaheen-III, which “has a range of up to 1,700 miles.” The Post would like us to believe that Pakistan was sending a message to its long-time rival, India, even as it puzzles over the visit the week before between India’s foreign secretary and Pakistani diplomats in Islamabad, presumably to improve relations.
I have a different take on Monday’s firing, and it has to do with the not-so-secret secret nuclear weapons pact between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. As Business Insider notes, the latter has been a long-time financier of the former’s nuclear weapons program, “providing financing in return for a widely assumed understanding that, if needed, Islamabad will transfer [Riyadh] technology or even warheads.”
And Fox News reports on a “curious visit” to Riyadh by Pakistan’s Prime Minister the day before John Kerry’s visit last Thursday. Co-incidental?
My theory is that Pakistan’s show of long-range nuclear capability was a message aimed at the Obama administration. If you allow Iran nuclear power, we will take care to see that our Saudi benefactors are equally armed.
Barack Obama, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, will have done more to further nuclear proliferation than any other American president.
