PAKISTAN WANTS EFFECTIVE VERIFICATION IN P-6

C O N F I D E N T I A L ISLAMABAD 001377 SIPDIS SIPDIS GENEVA/CD DEL AND ISN/WILLIAM MALZAHN E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/27/2017 TAGS: PK IN KNNP PREL SUBJECT: PAKISTAN WANTS EFFECTIVE VERIFICATION IN P-6 PROPOSAL REF: STATE 36980 Classified By: Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker, Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) On March 26, Deputy Chief of Mission delivered points in reftel to Ministry of Foreign Affairs Additional Secretary for UN Affairs Tariq Osman Hyder. Hyder responded that Pakistan was firm in its opposition to a negotiating mandate for the Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty that did not include a reference to "international and effective verification." Hyder explained that Pakistan supported three of the proposal's suggestions: ongoing discussion of nuclear disarmament, negative security assurances, and prevention of an outer space arms race. He further noted that Pakistan was not opposed, in principle, to keeping negotiation of the Fissile Treaty on the Conference's agenda for part II of 2007, but Pakistan would not approve of the P-6 proposal as written because the negotiating mandate for the Treaty was too narrow. "It is a matter of resources and national security," Hyder said; "Our country does not have the resources to provide for effective verification on its own, and effective verification is what matters most in this region." Hyder said Pakistan remained committed to the "Shannon Mandate" of 1995, which contains the full technical phrase that Pakistan wanted included in the Conference's proposed negotiating mandate for the Treaty. Pakistan would like the treaty to be "non-discriminatory, multilateral and internationally and effectively verifiable." CROCKER