A new book “Deception: Pakistan, the United States and the Global Nuclear Weapons Conspiracy” has claimed that Pakistan was preparing to use nuclear missile against India during the Kargil war, citing a conversion between former US President Bill Clinton and former Pakistan President Minister Nawaz Sharif eight years back. When President Clinton met Sherif at Blair House (in July 1999), Clinton asked if Sharif knew how advanced the threat of nuclear war really was. “Did he know, for example that his military was preparing to use nuclear missiles?” says the book Sherif indicated he was unaware of his military’s moves investigative journalists Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott-Clark claim in their 586-page book. The President warned Sherif that he had a statement ready for release that would pin all the blame all the blame for Kargil on Pakistan if the Prime Minister refused to pull his forces back. Sherif denied that he had ordered the preparations of their missile force, said he was against war but was worried for his life in Pakistan”. The book says quoting Bruce Riedel, who was at the National Security Council. Sherif read Clinton’s prepared statement to his advisers and returned ready to order a volte-face and call for his troops to withdraw back to the Line of Control (LoC), according to Riedel. Returning to Dulles airport from White House Sherif’s mood was glum, said Riedel. “The PM knew that he had done the right for the Pakistan and the world, but he was not sure that his army would see it that way.” Sherif pulled back the troops. According to the book,a few months later Nawaz Sherif was warned by Pakistan’s attorney general that he was about to be unseated in a military coup.
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