Washington: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan is saying the “right things”, but his military leadership too needs to take the “right decisions”, the Trump administration has said, hours after the UN Security Council designated JeM chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist.
Nearly 18 months after President Donald Trump ordered cutting off security aid to Pakistan, a senior US administration official told reporters that the US is trying to change Pakistan’s policy of supporting terrorist groups.
Noting the US’ recognition of the ISI’s links with its home-frown terrorist groups, the official said the US does not want to get involved in the country’s internal politics and expects the Pakistan military to correct the situation.”We support the civilian government. We support the nascent democratic system there. We support the fact that Prime Minister Khan says right things and appears to be trying to make some changes within Pakistan.
But only time will tell if he is successful in doing that,” he said. The senior administration official said Pakistan’s military leadership too needs to take “right decisions and right steps”. “So far, we do see support from the military to the direction that prime minister Khan seems to be going in,” he said.
The Trump administration Wednesday credited Khan for his “helpful statements” on cracking down on terror outfits and some initial steps being taken. “We do appreciate that Pakistan is saying the right thing, has taken the initial step that we’re looking for, but we reserve judgment because we have seen backpacking in the past,” the official said.
The official said the US wants to “reserve judgment” till it sees if the steps they are taking are actually irreversible. Observing that only time will tell about Pakistan’s future course of action, the US official said Khan as of now has made the right statement.