If it were in a position to do so, al-Qaeda would use Pakistan’s nuclear weapons in its fight against the US, a top leader of the group said in remarks aired on Sunday.

“God willing, the nuclear weapons will not fall into the hands of the Americans and the mujahideen would take them and use them against the Americans,” Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, the leader of al-Qaeda’s in Afghanistan, said in an interview with Al Jazeera. Abu al-Yazid was responding to a question about US safeguards to seize control over Pakistan’s nuclear weapons in case Islamist fighters came close to doing so. “We expect that the Pakistani Army would be defeated (in Swat)... and that would be its end everywhere, God willing.