Pakistan’s defense minister announced that under a new mutual defense agreement, his country’s nuclear capability “will be made available” to Saudi Arabia if needed, formally placing the kingdom under Islamabad’s nuclear umbrella.
Pakistan’s defense minister, Khawaja Mohammad Asif, has confirmed that Pakistan’s nuclear program “will be made available” to Saudi Arabia under a recently signed defense pact.
The agreement, struck this week, declares that an attack on one of the two nations would be considered an attack on both. It marks the first time Islamabad has explicitly acknowledged that its nuclear deterrent might extend to Riyadh.
Asif made the remarks in an interview with Geo TV when asked whether “the deterrence that Pakistan gets from nuclear weapons” would be extended to Saudi Arabia. He added: “What we have, and the capabilities we possess, will be made available to (Saudi Arabia) according to this agreement.”
Analysts see the pact as a message to Israel and other regional powers. Israel, long thought to be the Middle East’s only nuclear-armed state, has been viewed as a deterrent threat by Gulf states in recent weeks following cross-border tensions.