Jerusalem Post, A jittery Pakistan on Tuesday test-fired a missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead amid increasing fears that Israel and India will stage a joint preemptive strike against Islamabad's nuclear assets.
The Pakistani military said that the surface-to-surface missile known as Shaheen I has a range of 700 kilometers and the test was a success.
Pakistani media have reported that a long-range Shaheen II missile would be tested in coming days. It has a range of about 1,900 kilometers (1,200 miles) and has reportedly never been test-fired.
The missile test followed a warning from Islamabad that the $1 billion deal signed Friday for Israel and Russia to supply India with the Phalcon airborne early warning system would destabilize the region.
That deal, together with advanced avionics to upgrade their mainly Russian-supplied air force fleet, would turn India into a potent air power.
This, along with the Israeli-supplied Green Pine radar system and the air-to-surface Popeye II missile greatly tilts the strategic balance in the Indian sub-continent in Delhi's favor.
India's Defense Research and Development Organization is reportedly planning to send a high-level delegation to Israel this month to discuss Israeli involvement in an array of missile projects including the at-least 3,000-kilometer range Agni III.
Pakistan said Tuesday that the missile tests are not aimed at India despite simmering tensions. India and Pakistan, both nuclear-armed countries, are bitter rivals who have fought three wars since their 1947 independence from Britain.
Pakistan began its latest test series on October 3 by firing a short-range Ghaznavi (aka Hatf III) missile, with a range of 290 kilometers (180 miles). It fired another Shaheen I, (aka Hatf IV) on October 8.
Officials have said such tests aim to validate the designs of their missile systems.
The missile tests came as leading newspapers in Islamabad and Delhi quoted Pakistani intelligence sources as saying India and Israel plan to stage a joint strike against Pakistan's nuclear facilities.
“Israel had been proposing a surgical strike against Pakistani nuclear assets since the time of Morarji Desai was the prime minister of India but the real breakthrough only came during Ariel Sharon's recent visit to India [in September],” sources were quoted as saying by Pakistan Observer.
“Bush and at least three of his principals are convinced that, should anything happen to Musharraf, Pakistan's nuclear hardware could easily fall into the hands of religious extremists or rogue elements,” the paper quoted the unnamed sources as saying.
Israel and India, together with Russia and the United States are the only four countries that declared intentions to exercise their “right of self defense” through preemptive strikes.
The Times of India reported Tuesday that a joint strategy to fight terrorism by Israel, India, and the United States was “given shape” during Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's visit to India last month.
Efraim Inbar, head of the BESA Center at Bar-Ilan University, disagreed. “Israel doesn't want to be the enemy of Pakistan. We don't lack enemies,” he said.
The only scenario that Inbar, an expert on Indo-Israel relations, could see of Israel joining India in a strike against Pakistan would be if Islamists take control and nuclear weapons fall into the hands of Muslim fundamentalists.
“We have nothing to fear from Pakistan directly under the present circumstances. The fear increases, however, if the Islamists take control,” said Inbar. In the meantime, he said, Israel is open to dialogue with Pakistan.
Musharraf even raised the issue of relations with the Jewish state, which has set off enormous debate in the Pakistani press. Still, Pakistani emissaries have visited Israel in the past year.
Inbar said Israel would certainly not hamper or contain its warm and growing strategic relations with India to appease Pakistan. “We have very close ties with India and we certainly are not planning in joining in or cooperating with an attack on Pakistan,” Inbar said.
