WASHINGTON, Dec 12: The United States does not believe that Pakistan has shared nuclear technology with Iran, and the US administration has never spoken of any link between the nuclear programmes of the two countries, US and Pakistani officials told Dawn on Friday.

“The US administration has never said Pakistan shared nuclear technology or supplied nuclear know-how to Iran, publicly or privately,” said Mohammed Sadiq, Pakistan’s deputy chief of mission in Washington.

“They also defended Pakistan when some media reports said Pakistan was selling nuclear weapons to Saudi Arabia. The US denial came before denials by Saudi Arabia or Pakistan,” he added.

A State Department official also endorsed this view, saying: “Yes, the US government has not said anything about Pakistan’s connection with the Iranian nuclear programme.”

The official told Dawn that the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, was investigating how Iran acquired nuclear technology and the US administration would “wait for the agency to complete its investigation” before making any comments.

The controversy of Pakistan’s alleged involvement in the Iranian nuclear programme was revived this week following reports that two Pakistani nuclear scientists have been taken into custody in Islamabad for assisting Iran.

But Pakistani officials, interviewed by Dawn, denied that any scientist has been arrested in Pakistan for sharing nuclear technology with Iran.

Officials in Washington also said they had not heard of any Pakistani scientist currently being investigated by the FBI. Last year, FBI officials had investigated a senior Pakistani scientist Bashiruddin Mahmud on the suspicion that he had shared nuclear information with the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Dr Mahmud was later released and Pakistani officials said that charges against him were not proved.

The FBI never commented on the investigation. Earlier this year, the US administration imposed sanctions on the Kahuta Research Laboratories, saying that the establishment was allegedly providing material support to a country or people trying to develop weapons of mass destruction or the missiles that carry them.

The sanctions caused speculations that the US was bringing pressure on Pakistan to roll back its nuclear programme and give up its nuclear assets.

But Pakistani officials interviewed by Dawn denied facing any such pressure from the US government and insisted that Pakistan was not going to give up its nuclear option in return for any favour.

“Nuclear deterrence is a reality, and we will not roll back our nuclear programme,” said Mr Sadiq.

Privately, Pakistani officials claim that the US government has already accepted India and Pakistan as countries with nuclear weapons and is no longer asking them to roll back their programmes.

“This a huge development that happened last year. We appreciate Washington’s confidence in Islamabad and are not going to do anything to hurt this confidence,” said the official.

“We have a firm command and control system and a reliable export control system. While we will maintain our nuclear assets, we also are determined not to indulge in proliferation,” said Mr Sadiq.

Western media reports said that while the Pakistani government may not have been involved in transferring nuclear technology to Iran, individual scientists sympathetic to Iran might have offered their assistance. The reports also accuse Pakistan of allegedly providing centrifuges to Iran for use in its nuclear plants.

Commenting on these allegations, Mr Sadiq said: “The information that an individual scientist can provide was also available on the Internet few weeks ago.”

“And the allegation that we gave centrifuges, makes no sense at all. For a nuclear plant, you need thousands of centrifuges, not one or two. It is not possible for us to give away so many centrifuges without being noticed by the rest of the world,” he added.