WASHINGTON, June 14: Pakistan will remain a nuclear state, even if it is not recognised as such and, therefore, there is need to devise a strategy to settle this undefined status, say nuclear experts, including the chief of the UN nuclear watchdog, International Atomic Energy Agency.

While explaining the need for a new approach, IAEA’s Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei points out: “Pakistan and India (are) both holders of nuclear arsenals (while) Israel … maintains an official policy of ambiguity but is believed to be nuclear weapons-capable.”

Charles D. Ferguson, a fellow of science and technology at the Council on Foreign Relations, says that “there are people in the US administration” who believe that somewhere down the line Pakistan will also have to be offered a deal like the one offered to India.

In an opinion piece in the Washington Post on Wednesday, Mr ElBaradei, notes: “However fervently we might wish it, none of these three (India, Pakistan and Israel) is likely to give up its nuclear weapons or the nuclear weapons option outside of a global or regional arms control framework.”

Referring to the nuclear deal between India and US, Mr ElBaradei says: “As we face the future, other strategies must be found to enlist Pakistan and Israel as partners in nuclear arms control and non-proliferation. Whatever form those solutions take, they will need to address not only nuclear weapons but also the much broader range of security concerns facing each country.”

Stressing the need for “a great deal more outside-of-the-box thinking, and a sense of realism,” the IAEA chief says: “Our traditional strategy — of treating such states as outsiders — is no longer a realistic method of bringing these last few countries into the fold.”

Mr ElBaradei notes that under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, “there is no such thing as a ‘legitimate’ or ‘illegitimate’ nuclear weapons state. The fact that five states are recognised in the treaty as holders of nuclear weapons was regarded as a matter of transition; the treaty does not in any sense confer permanent status on those states as weapons holders.”

At a Tuesday afternoon seminar in Washington, Mr Ferguson said that offering a deal to India did not mean the US was telling “Pakistan you will never get a nuclear deal.”

Instead, he suggested keeping Pakistan in “a half-way house” until it meets certain conditions. When asked to define those conditions, Mr Ferguson said: “Stabilising its nuclear weapons establishment, a fool-proof assurance against proliferation and leakage of nuclear technology by any kind of network could go a long way in indicating Pakistan is a responsible state.”