Wikileaks reports seen a plot to harm Muslim countries ties

Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting of Pakistan's National Assembly has termed the release of Wikileaks reports as a conspiracy to harm relations among the Muslim countries.

"Wikileaks' aim behind the release of the reports is just to disturb the relations between the Muslim countries" noted all the members of the NA committee at a meeting in Islamabad on Tuesday. 

Former Chief of the Staff of the Pakistani Army, General Mirza Aslam Beg, also expressed similar views. "The US has a hand in this plot, and these reports (posted by the WikiLeaks website) are part of the US psychological warfare." 

He stated that the US could prevent the leak of information if it wanted to do so, and warned that the real plot and conspiracy pursued by these reports will be unraveled in future.

Alluding to the Wikileaks reports about Pakistan's nuclear program, General Aslam Beg said that the CIA and Israel's spy agency Mossad have launched efforts to weaken and destabilize Pakistan, and WikiLeaks reports are part of these efforts.

According to the leaked documents, the U.S. has mounted a secret effort, since 2007, to remove highly enriched uranium from a Pakistani reactor. 

In May 2009, Anne Patterson, former U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, reported that the Pakistanis were refusing to schedule a visit by U.S. technical experts because, according to a Pakistani official, "if the local media got word of the fuel removal they certainly would portray it as the United States taking away Pakistan's nuclear weapons."

Abdul Basit , Pakistan's foreign ministry spokesman, explained that the fuel in question was from a research reactor given to Pakistan in the 1960s by the United States. "Since 2007 they have been asking us to return that fuel," he said in an interview with NBC News. "Our position is that the fuel is our property and we cannot return it."

One cable published by the WikiLeaks said, Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, a close ally of Pakistan, called Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari the main cause of his country's woes. Pakistani President's office responded that the leaks were "no more than an attempt to create misperceptions between two important and brotherly Muslim countries."

Pakistan 's Foreign Office called the report "misleading and contrary to the facts" and went on to say that the king and the people of Saudi Arabia have always stood by Pakistan. "It is quite evident that these mischievous reports reveal the utter inadequacy of the author to grasp the essence of the Pakistan-Saudi relationship," the statement said. 

Qataris are also skeptical

Some Qataris also believe the United States could be behind release of secret documents through WikiLeaks. Qataris believe that the leaking of the US diplomatic cables is part of a ploy to exacerbate tension between Iran and the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the Qatari daily Peninsula reported.

"It is all deliberate. We can clearly see through the ploy," Dr Mouza Al Malki, a Qatari psychologist, said. "The idea of the so-called leaks is to further intensify tension between Iran and the GCC," she said, quoted by The Peninsula.

According to The Peninsula, "the so-called expose by the much-touted whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks involving Iran and three GCC states do not have many takers in Qatar."

While it is apparent that Tehran is the main target of these "well-thought-out and conspiratorial" disclosures, three GCC entities known not to have cordial relations with Iran have been dragged into the controversy, Qataris said.

The six-member GCC includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. With the exception of Saudi Arabia, all the GCC states have US military bases. Bahrain hosts the US 5th Fleet Command headquarters.

Dr. Al Malki said that since Iranians are present in large numbers in Saudi Arabia and other GCC states, Iran would never attack the Gulf region.

What lends more credence to public suspicion about the leak drama is the fact that Egypt, where the US has been openly screaming against corruption, is out of the entire expose episode," the daily reported, quoting unnamed Qataris.

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