A high-ranking Iranian official recently said that Pakistan would nuke Israel if Iran was attacked with nuclear weapons.
Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif took to X to dismiss the claim and say that they made no such commitment.
"Our nuclear capability is solely for the defence of our country and the well-being of our people. We do not engage in hegemonic designs against any neighbour, unlike what we are currently witnessing from Israel," Asif stated.
He also cautioned the western world to be wary about the conflicts being generated by Israel, a country that is not bound by any international nuclear discipline such as the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
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"Pakistan has told us that if Israel uses nuclear missiles, we will also attack it with nuclear weapons," General Mohsen Rezaee said in an interview on Iranian state television.
Rezaee is a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Expediency Discernment Council of Iran, and is a secretary of the Iranian government's economic committee.
There has been no official public record of any Pakistani leader saying that they would back Tehran in the ongoing Israel-Iran conflict. Official Pakistani sources have also not confirmed that such an offer was made.
Meanwhile, an official from Pakistan’s foreign ministry dismissed recent reports that the country would supply non-nuclear ballistic missiles to Iran.
Recently, Khawaja Asif, while speaking to the national assembly, said that all Muslim countries must unite against Israeli aggression or that they might face the same fate. Asif had said that they would stand behind Iran and “support them at every international forum to protect their interest." Asif also urged Muslim countries to convene the Organisation of Islamic Corporation (OIC).
Asif also urged Muslim countries to convene the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to form joint strategies to deal with Israel.
In an online post, Asif said the "Western world must worry about conflicts being generated by Israel" and that "It will engulf the whole region and beyond; their patronage of Israel, a rogue state, can have catastrophic consequences”.
In 2024, Iran and Pakistan had exchanged a brief missile strike. However, their relationship had seemed to improve after the incident. The countries have had a functional relationship, with both suspecting the other of harbouring insurgent groups. Their alliances are also vastly different, with Pakistan having the backing of the US.
Razaee’s claim that Pakistan would back them with nuclear weapons might only have been a diplomatic reassurance, according to military analysts at the Indian Defence Research Wing. Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal being used to engage Israel would mean a massive shift in the country’s alliances. It would mean that they would have to move against the US, who has supplied them with weapons.
Iran fired a new wave of missiles on Israel on Monday morning in their ongoing conflict that began four days ago. Israel had made pre-emptive attacks on Iran’s nuclear enrichment sites and used precision strikes to kill several top Iranian officials. The death toll in Iran since the attacks stands at 224 and in Israel at 18.