ISLAMIC RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS MINISTER DEMANDS NUCLEAR FUEL

Australian FM rebuffs Pakistan over uranium sale to India

SYDNEY: Australia’s Foreign Minister Alexander Downer on Friday dismissed a plea from a Pakistani minister to supply uranium to his country, saying the South Asian nation did not have any nuclear power stations.

Australia on Thursday said it was considering selling uranium to India after New Delhi finalises a landmark civilian nuclear deal with the United States.

Pakistan’s Religious Affairs Minister Ijazul Haq said if Canberra agreed to sell uranium to India, it should also consider selling the resource to its South Asian nuclear rival.

Alan note: to provide it to Islamic jihadists or Taleban in Waziristan? Sell it to Iran? Advance Al Qaeda aims with hard to obtain nuclear capability?

BY THE WAY: remember that the Taleban are Pakistanis and not Afghans as so many mistakenly believe. They are not of Afghan origin.

“Pakistan should be considered alongside India by countries that are working in this region to maintain the region’s balance of power,” Haq told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

The minister said Islamabad would use the uranium for energy purposes. “Pakistan’s nuclear program is totally peaceful,” he said. “If we are going to go further into nuclear research, it is going to be for energy because we are suffering from power shortages.”

But Downer downplayed the request, saying the religion minister may not be the best person to comment on uranium sales.

“Pakistan, I might be wrong, but to the best of my knowledge anyway, have never approached us on this issue before,” Downer told Southern Cross Radio.

“And I’m not sure the minister for religious affairs could really be termed an expert on this subject, he’d be an expert on religious affairs.

I’m not sure about power and energy generation in Pakistan being his area of profound expertise, but I might be being unfair to him, I simply don’t know.”

Alan note: According to fundamental Islam, all knowledge is contained in the Koran and anything outside it has no validity or should be ignored. With that thought as the base, the Minister of Religious Affairs sees no need to know anything about nuclear matters. As an expert on the Koran he is an expert on everything! Even if it were not invented 1,400 years ago.