WASHINGTON, Jan 4:
Pakistan only goes after terrorists “selectively” while it “sustains and supports others who act as an arm of its foreign policy”, US National Security Advisor H R McMaster has said.
In an interview with Voice of America, McMaster said the President Donald Trump’s tweet was not a “blame game” but an “effort to communicate clearly to Pakistan that our relationship can no longer bear the weight of contradictions, and that we have to really begin now to work together to stabilise Afghanistan.”
He said President Trump was “frustrated” at Pakistan’s behavior, as “it continues to provide support for these groups, it goes after terrorist insurgent groups, really, very selectively, and uses others as an arm of their foreign policy… he wants to see the Pakistani Government go after these groups less selectively.”
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McMaster said that Pakistan was operating against the interest of its own people” by “providing safe havens and support bases for Taliban and Haqqani network leadership” who “perpetuate hell in portions of Pakistan and in Afghanistan.”
He also said it was certainly not in China’s interest to support Pakistan. “China has a terrorist problem on its southern border, a terrorist problem that does have connections back into Pakistan.
It’s not going to be any other country in the region, certainly, who will want Pakistan to continue this, really, pattern of behavior that we’ve seen, where it goes after these groups only selectively, while it sustains and supports others who act as an arm of its foreign policy.”
A day after Trump slammed Islamabad for harboring terrorists in a New Year’s Day tweet, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang defended Islamabad’s counter-terrorism track record, saying the country “made great efforts and sacrifices for combating terrorism” and urged the international community to “fully recognize this.”
The same day, Pakistan’s central bank announced that it will be replacing the dollar with the yuan for bilateral trade and investment with Beijing. Asked about Pakistan, like North Korea, using its nuclear capability as some sort of a lever, McMaster said, “Well, I think it would just be unwise for any Pakistani leader I can’t imagine a Pakistani leader using nuclear weapons to extort or for blackmail.
“So, I think Pakistan could be on a path to increase security and prosperity, or it could be on a path to replicating North Korea. I think that’s an easy choice for Pakistani leaders.”
On Wednesday, the Federal Cabinet in its meeting in Islamabad chaired by Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi viewed the American statements as detrimental to the bilateral relationship.
“Pakistan has rendered huge sacrifices, both in terms of loss of precious human lives and substantial damage to the economy. Achievements made by Pakistan in curbing the menace of terrorism have been acknowledged throughout the world,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a press release. (UNI)
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