Israel considered attacking nuclear installations in Pakistan in 1979 after the US aired concerns over Islamabad’s efforts to acquire nuclear weapons to attain parity with India, according to a media report here. The possibility of an Israeli attack on Pakistani nuclear installations came up during Jimmy Carter’s term as US President, Ha’aretz daily reported, quoting newly declassified US State Department documents.The documents also make it clear that the US Government did not hold special discussions to address Israel’s ‘‘preventive strike’’ plans, it said. The documents were recently released by the National Security archive, an independent non-governmental research institute based in Washington that specialises in disclosing unclassified documents under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act.The Israeli plan is said to have come up in a meeting held on September 14, 1979 by a Disarmament Consultation Committee, a panel created in the 1960s by the executive branch, but no longer exists. The participants in the meeting related to ‘‘urgent’’ nuclear matters, the report said. The Carter administration is said to have been particularly worried about reports indicating that Pakistan was making efforts to acquire nuclear weapons.During the meeting, Committee Deputy Director Charles Van Doren voiced concerns that China was helping Pakistan attain nuclear capability, the report said. William Burr, senior analyst at the National Security Archive, said that a large portion of the documents, including ones that alludes to the possibility of an Israeli attack on Pakistan, underwent heavy censorship before they were declassified.
