Israel could have easily destroyed Pakistani nuclear reactors and sites but stopped due to…; What was Islamabad’s Project-706?

India, under the leadership of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, conducted its first nuclear tests in May 1974.

New Delhi: Pakistan is the only recognised Muslim country in the world to possess a good number of nuclear warheads. They are said to be having about 190-200 nuclear capable projectile, almost same number as India’s, who it considers its archenemy.

India and Pakistan become nuclear powers

India conducted its first nuclear test in 1974, followed by a series of tests in May 1998. Following that, India had announced that it is a nuclear weapon equipped power. This scared Islamabad as it was never a match for New Delhi’s conventional military prowess.

A fidgety Pakistan had no choice but to detonate its own nuclear devices, which it did only a few days after India’s 1998 test. Pakistan became a nuclear power in May 1998 when it conducted five nuclear tests in the Chagai Hills of Balochistan Province. It had been working on its nuclear agenda under Project-706, the codename of a research and development programme to develop Pakistan’s nuclear weapons.

Project-706 of Pakistan and race to develop nuclear bomb

Project-706 was started by Pakistani Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in 1974 after India, under the leadership of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, conducted its first nuclear tests in May 1974.

Pakistan developed the requisite nuclear infrastructure and gained expertise in the extraction, refining, processing and handling of fissile material with the ultimate goal of designing a nuclear device. Everything was on tracks except a potential danger of an Israeli airstrike to destroy the nuclear facilities. Even worse for Pakistan, it could have been a joint Indian Israeli operation to prevent India’s western neighbour to get its hands on a thing as formidable and destructive as a nuclear bomb.

Fear of Israeli air strike and role of US and UK

Pakistani officials were uncertain but were convinced that Israel could destroy its nuclear plants. The fact that Israeli Air Force had destroyed an Iraqi nuclear reactor in a surprise airstrike deep inside Iraq 17 years ago, on 7 June 1981, was a veritable reason.

Pakistan was very worried and scared about the safety, security, and secrecy of its nuclear programme as an Israeli attack seemed imminent. Though, long before Pakistan acquired the atomic bomb, Tel Aviv had been paranoid about Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme as in 1979, Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin communicated his fears to the then British Prime minister Margaret Thatcher.

The matter reached the White House and the then US president Ronald Reagan refused and warned Israel not to go ahead.

What happened before Pakistan’s 1998 tests?

According to some documents, the Pakistani radars detected Israeli F-16s in its airspace before the nuclear tests. Wasting no time, Pakistan’s ambassador to the United Nations met Kofi Annan while senior officials got in touch with the then US president Bill Clinton to convey fears about an Israeli attack.

Interestingly, Benjamin Netanyahu was the Prime minister of Israel during that time. On Netanyahu’s directions, Isidor Dore Gold, the Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations, met his Pakistani counterpart Ahmed Kamal in June 1998.

Meanwhile, Israel’s ambassador to the USA Eliahu Ben-Elissar held a meeting with Riaz Khokhar, Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States.

Both Isidor Dore Gold and Eliahu Ben-Elissar conveyed messages of reassurance that the Benjamin Netanyahu-led Israeli government did not intend to harm Pakistan’s nuclear weapons and facilities in any way whatsoever.