Monetary Aid to Pakistan ‘Will be Conditioned’, Says Top White House Official

The official remarked the Trump administration has set a time line for progress in action being taken by Pakistan against the terrorist groups

Washington, August 27: After President Donald Trump’s comments on providing safe haven to terrorists in South Asia, a top official on Sunday said the United States’ monetary help to Pakistan in future will be conditioned.

The official alleged the intelligence agencies in Pakistan were acting in connivance with terror organisations. He 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.”

The official expected the results are expected to emerge sooner if Pakistan takes action against terror organisations. The officer was quoted by PTI on the conditions of anonymity.

He said, “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 remarked the Trump administration has set a time line for progress in action being taken by Pakistan against the terrorist groups. He said, “It wouldn’t be appropriate for me to give exact timelines that we’re dealing in. But, certainly there is an expectation that we’ll start to see some changes in the very near future.”

Responding to the questions on remarks of President Donald Trump on Pakistan providing safe havens to terrorists, He said, “I think the President was very clear that we are going to take a different approach to that stand. There’s a lot of frustration (in the US) with the continued safe havens in Pakistan. But we believe there is hope for greater cooperation from Pakistan on these issues.

He added “It’s Pakistan’s choice. Pakistan has much to benefit from by cooperating with the US and cracking down on some of these groups.” Pakistan has much to lose if it fails to do so, the official warned.

 The official refrained from commenting on future course of relationship with Pakistan. He said,”We’re not going to talk about the precise steps that the US is considering with regard to its relationship with Pakistan. We’ll reserve that for our private discussions on Pakistan.

“We’ll just simply say that it’s extremely important to this administration that Pakistan take tangible steps against the groups that continue to support attacks against US service members and US officials in Afghanistan,”

He added, “We think that Pakistan will see that it’s in its own interest to cooperate with the US. And that, when they’re thinking about their core security interests in Afghanistan, they will assess that they can better achieve those objectives by being in a cooperative relationship with the US, rather than a contentious relationship. These are the kinds of conversations that we’re having with Pakistan,”