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Saudi money combines with Pakistani nukes
I think we've discussed this idea before...
A week before Pakistan's first nuclear tests in May 1998, then prime minister Nawaz Sharif received a late night telephone call from a Saudi prince. India, Pakistan's arch-rival, had conducted nuclear tests that month and Mr Sharif was weighing the consequences of following suit. As Mr Sharif told a hurriedly organised meeting of senior officials, the Saudi prince had offered up to 50,000 barrels of oil a day to Pakistan for an indefinite period on deferred payment terms. This would allow Pakistan to overcome the impact of punitive western sanctions expected after the tests. The Saudi message, delivered on behalf of Crown Prince Abdullah, the de facto ruler, once again bailed out Pakistan at a difficult moment. "It is possible that Pakistan may still have conducted its nuclear tests without the Saudi oil. But the tests would have been done with the knowledge that the economic fallout was going to be far more severe," says a former aide to Mr Sharif.

Saudi financial support has fuelled suspicions of nuclear co-operation between the two countries. A senior US official says Saudi finance helped fund Pakistan's nuclear programme, allowing it among other things to buy nuclear technology from China. Officials discount the possibility of Pakistani help to build an indigenous Saudi nuclear weapon. But they say there could be a sort of "lend-lease arrangement" that would allow weapons from Pakistan to be made available to Saudi Arabia. "The argument that they have options on Pakistan's arsenal is more likely," the US official says.

Both Saudi and Pakistani officials vehemently deny the existence of any such deal. "We've never given money aimed at nuclear research and development and so we never asked or received privileges to nuclear weapons programmes," insists Prince Turki al-Faisal, the former Saudi intelligence chief. Nawaf Obeid, a Saudi security consultant close to the government, however, suggests the kingdom enjoys Pakistan's security umbrella without any formal agreement. "We gave money and they dealt with it as they saw fit," he says of the Pakistanis. "There's no documentation but there is an implicit understanding that on everything, in particular on security and military issues, Pakistan would be there for Saudi Arabia."
Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-08-06
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=39890