Add Syria to the list of countries that were supplied nuclear technology by AQ Khan. The Hindustan Times reports:
In a new dimension to AQ Khan’s nuclear ‘Wal-mart’ saga, a US intelligence report to Congress talks of the network’s suspected transfer of nuclear weapons technology to Syria as well.
This is the first time the Bush administration has publicly linked the Khan network’s supply chain to Syria, the Washington Times reported on Saturday. So far, the covert network had been found complicit in nuclear supplies to Libya, Iran and North Korea.
In their report to Congress, the US intelligence agencies have said that Pakistani investigators have confirmed reports from the International Atomic Energy Agency that the Khan network “offered nuclear technology and hardware to Syria”.
Khan, the architect of Pakistan’s nuclear programme currently in “protective custody”, had earlier confessed to interrogators about supplying gas centrifuge items to Iran, Libya and North Korea. He, however, had denied selling any material to Syria, despite reports that he had visited Syria several times.