The U.S.’s security aid to Pakistan “will be conditioned” on the steps Islamabad takes against terrorist groups such as the Taliban and the Haqqani network, a senior Trump administration official has said. “There have been long-standing relationships between the Pakistani intelligence officials and these terrorist groups. So, we don’t expect things to change overnight. We expect incremental changes over time,” he said.
His comments came days after U.S. President Donald Trump hit out at Pakistan for providing safe havens to “agents of chaos”.
Incremental changes
“We will be able to see when these changes start to happen. They (might) not become immediately apparent to the public, but we’re confident that when Pakistan takes the steps we’re asking it to do, we’ll know it and we’ll be able to assess. And so, our security aid will be conditioned on the steps that we expect them to take against, in particular, the Taliban-Haqqani Network,” the official said on condition of anonymity. The U.S., he said, is monitoring the situation carefully and expects some progress.
He was responding to a series of questions on the statements coming out of Pakistan, which are generally in strong opposition to the Mr. Trump’s South Asia strategy. “How do you see Pakistan’s reaction? Do you think that they would be, given these kind of reactions that’s coming up in public domain, think they will be cooperating this time with you on counter-terrorism issues?” he was asked.