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WASHINGTON: US National Security Adviser John Bolton said that the decision to suspend military aid to Pakistan was not taken lightly as the Trump administration was fully aware of the consequences of taking such an action against a nuclear weapons state.
In his address to a Washington think-tank — the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies — earlier this week, Mr Bolton also said that the US wanted Pakistan to cooperate fully in war against terrorism as “it’s a matter of extraordinary importance” to America.
“It was before my time, but the Trump administration did not take the decision to cancel a substantial part of the military aid package to Pakistan lightly,” he said.
“It was done knowing full well that Pakistan is a nuclear weapons state, and the risk that the government could fall into the hands of terrorists that would get control of those nuclear weapons was particularly serious.”
National security adviser says war against terrorism is a matter of extraordinary importance to America
In January, President Donald Trump suspended most of military aid to Pakistan, accusing Islamabad of allowing the Taliban to use its territory for attacks in Afghanistan. Last week, the Pentagon urged Congress to allow it to use for other purpose the funds that had been set aside for Pakistan.
The re-allocation ended the possibility that the funds earmarked for Pakistan could be released if Islamabad agreed to take the required action against various terrorist groups.
But during his visit to Islamabad last week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had pressed the new Pakistani government that it was still possible to “reset” the US-Pakistan relationship if Pakistan agreed to rein in the groups reportedly operating from its soil.
Mr Bolton said Secretary Pompeo wanted to convey the message that “we hoped and expected that Pakistan would cooperate fully in the war against terrorism, which they had committed to do.”
He said terrorism was “a serious threat” to the entire subcontinent but Pakistan needed to act against terrorists because it’s also a threat to its own existence.
He said terrorism was also “a matter of extraordinary importance for the United States” and that’s why it wanted the new Pakistani government to address it.
Mr Bolton said during his visit to Islamabad, Secretary Pompeo wanted to meet Prime Minister Imran Khan but could not.
Although a journalist reminded him that Mr Khan chaired the meeting between the US and Pakistani delegations, Mr Bolton did not correct himself.
This caused some to speculate that perhaps Mr Pompeo wanted a separate meeting with the prime minister.
Published in Dawn, September 13th, 2018
Comments (121) Closed
What word does this guy eve live in?
Now U.S is coming to seances. Trump will however spoil relations with its former friends.
terrorism was also "a matter of extraordinary importance for the United States” Terrorism is also a matter of extraordinary importance to Pakistan. Pakistan has paid dearly in fighting terrorism along with USA. Pakistan in most cases has done her job, it is United States that needs to find a peaceful solution. Do More USA.
Looks like Imran was not interested in secret 1 on 1 meeting with Pompeo.
keep your comments and think tanks to yourself America!
Stop pointing fingers. American leave Afghanistan stop blaming others for their own loss, it's another Vietnam with Trillions of dollars lost. Night time landing in Northern Afghanistan by the Russian planes are not for Christmas celebration.
IndoPak Blood Brothers 4 Life!
Bolton does not know ground realities!
What does this aid has to do with Pakistan being a nuclear state. This is not an aid but the money owed to Pakistan to fight Americas war against terror.
John Bolton needs to retire. His thinking capability is being compromised by his age. He should now enjoy a retired life with his grand kids.
That's life, you lose some good old friends and you make some new ones, like Russia. A failed South Asian policy won't achieve nothing.
More and more sanctions likely to come.
Mr. John Bolton is such a liar. Mr. Pompeo did meet Imran Khan.
This proves that the Yankees lies too, and keep it going untill other starts believing it.
Liars
In times of need, only true friends step forward to assist. US delegation came for 5 hours to make demands and inform that they are withdrawing any help that was needed. The Chinese delegation came spent three days and reaffirmed support ,asked what else we needed and made no demands.
Not to hard to see who is genuine friend and who is foe.
USA has not been able to defeat Afghanistan in 17 years, look at the size of Afghanistan compared to USA and now wants to blame it on Pakistan. Bolton and his Master are both crazy.
IK doesn't want aid and so does this nation so please keep it to you
We must stay billions of miles away from any and every American war. They have the economy to fight wars, we do not. I hope PM Khan makes good of his promise to end war co-operation with the Americans - especially now when they have decided to end the payment for using Pakistani territory.
Does Ambasidor Bolton realize the US actions have harmed United States then Pakistan. First it did not stopped alalledged aid but it fraudantly stole the mony owed to Pakistan as a reimbursement against the service rendered. Now do you expect PAKISTAN to trust American. The United States has lost whatever little leverage it had on Pakistan. Refreshing the Memory that it was Pakistan effort in defeating Russia that made America sole superpower. What makes Mr Bolton believes this cannot be reversed and the reality will shift to multi power world. When this happens India will ditch Americans in the interest of regional security. At that time who would you expect to support your foreign policy interest in South Asian block.
The most important part is that mentioned about an existing fear that our nukes may fall into terrorists hands, they usually make such statements to instil fear for obtaining lisence to kill from thier Senate etc...
America should realize that America’s days of being “GREAT” are over and they should stop bullying everyone. America needs Pakistan more than Pakistan needs America! Without Pakistan’s support, you would have not lasted this long in Afghanistan in the first place.
Pakisitan would be much better with out the US military aid. We do not want any assistance if strings are attached to it and which let us act against our Nations interests. US provides unconditional support to his allies in the east and west of Pakistan with no results on the ground. We will pursue the policies which suit our goals and will not come under pressure from the unpopular government in white house
What an imaginative mind. Pakistan's nuclear arsenal could fall in the hands of terrorists because the government did not receive $300million from U.S. Clearly age is not just a number
Not our war.
He is preparing ground, a case for UN to intervene, sanction and take control of Pak Nukes. Paks be warned, take note, this is the exact same pretext used for the invasion and destruction of Iraq.
Don't take it easy, Americans are putting full pressure on Pakistan. International community and UN believe what they say and not what Pakistan says. Pakistan should take measures to safeguard its strategic assets and also look for alternates to support its economy.
Pakistan has defeated terrorism on its soil despite the US being a hindrance to this process all along. In stark contrast, they have failed utterly in Afghanistan despite being the, so called, super power. And their leadership position in this region (and elsewhere in the world) is eroding fast. This blame game is indication enough of the weakness of this decling empire!
United States of America is a super power in recession. China has become the number one maritime nation, their economy is larger as a whole, their trade relations across the world is soaring and they are picking up on defense technology as well. More importantly, they are not involved in wars which has put huge burden on American economy.
Pakistan all be wise to distance her self from American wars as stated by Imran Khan for years before becoming PM. The war co-operation should end immediately as Americans have decided not to refurbish us for our expenses.
when they meet they praise our efforts when go back to usa they say do more, they want us to do more because they have failed and they are unable to harvest hidden resources that Afghanistan has, diamonds are one of them, they want us to do more to clear the way for them .
Pakistan is no more looking for American handouts and there is a small panic in Washington. Say goodbye to Pakistan listening to US demands on Afghanistan! This will surely bring the war to its conclusion on Pakistani terms. Stabilization of Afghanistan is part of a regional security complex for both India and Pakistan. Once the US leaves, India will leave Afghanistan off to its own. India will refuse to put boots on the ground in Afghanistan and that will be the end of its influence.
After a very long time,Pakistan is on a right track.It should fence its border with Afghanistan,repatriate Afghan refugees and take a firm stand on Afghan war.It is not our war,it never has been and world should not worry about our nuclear assets.Pakistan has successfully over come the storms.Future ahead is pretty stable.America must stop bidding for India.
Worry about China, Russia and Pakistan joining hands against you.
There will be no "terrorism" if there is no crimnalism.
What rubbish propaganda against Pakistan...... Pakistan is a strong country ruled by vibrant democracy and terrorists sent across the Afghan border have been all but wiped out by one of the strongest Army. I guess your wish to turn us into another Syria has not come true.........
US wants to create rift between PTI Government and Establishment thats why Pompeo wanted a separate meeting with IK. Our Government should be careful while dealing with US and must convey to US that our nation is united and is on the same page as far as US policy is concerned.
You have stopped the so called aid, now move on and stop harping on about it. We are also moving on.
@Zak There are no permanent freinds or foes in International arena. Both parties are pursuing their interests in the region. If it is as easiest for terrorist to capture the nuclear weapons then USA would have certainly destroyed or seized these weapons with its so called superior technology...it shows their frustation that pakistan has out rooted terrorism nexus and has state of the art protection mechanism for its nuclear weapons!
A warmonger and trouble maker, doing Trump's dirty work.
Bolton talks from both ends!
Trump is anti-Muslim and ant-Islam.
Now america is suddenly worried about Pakistan's nuclear arsenal ....hold your horses boys, don't even think about it.
John Boltri is not qualified to the National Security Advisor.
Good morning Mr Bolton, wakeup.
Well, Pakistan is doing what she needs to do. Americans want to hide their worst mistake ever of invading Afghanistan. Nuclear Weapons are safe. Americans want to make our Nuclear Weapons vulnerable. Terrorists can occupy our arsenal ! wait terrorist are being trained by Americans themselves to create chaos within Pakistan. Accepting defeat is hard for Americans. Do more is nothing but drama to convince the people of America that Pakistan is terrorizing Afghanistan and America is innocent. America, you are on your own... Pakistan Zindabad
Can't make much sense of the rhetoric of USA. When Pakistan is clearly winning and USA is losing.
All we pakistani agree the government is standing firm against all terror organizations.
Considering the long-standing relationship of over seven decades, the US should release the blocked funds to Pakistan as a goodwill gesture to the new government.
Even after 17 years of fighting the Taliban, American hasn't been able to resolve the conflict in Afghanistan. The Government of Afghanistan is corrupt and it has failed to exercise its writ in a stately manner. A stable Afghanistan is beneficial to all its Neighbor as well as a face-saving-outcome for America as well. So, it would be better if the America stops blaming Pakistan for not doing enough and solve this conflict in a diplomatic way. It's never too late to take this in a serious manner.
Please educate me if I am wrong or over simplified in stating that all terrorism and its proxies are nothing but the covert operations by CIA and its affiliates to ensure perpetual wars for the military/industry complex. It is just to fool the world by pretending to fight wars (terrorism) among their proxies. Come on; USA, you can fool the world sometime but not all the time.
Mr Pompeo wanted a separate meeting (one to One) with the prime minister but it was not granted and IK met him with his team of foreign & defence affairs !
What a flight of imaginations. Yet to see such day dreamer.
No more. We have to build our country first. Improve relations. Build our exports. Wars destroy such activities.
It was a good decision that PM did not agreed to a separate meeting with Pompeo.
I congratulate Imran Khan for ending the relationship with Washington i.e. the master and servant relationship that existed between Washington and Islamabad.
Surely is it not the case that the World should be deeply concerned at the fact that the US nuclear weapons have fallen into the hand of an unstable and untrustworthy man called Trump. Why always the focus on Pakistan's nukes every time.
Whatever, this is not aid , this is coalition support fund and you already know we are out of this coalition already
@FarAz_Canada
What a beautiful remake. Says million words
We don’t want aid, ho away from this region and mind your business.
Pakistan has the upper hand also American own atleast €35 billion dollars to Pakistan.
Jewish group is taking over the USA Administration. Therefore more problem for the Muslim. .
@El Cid- Do,n,t worry, Pakistan is not a defenseless country like Iraq. We are a nation of 220 millions and know very well how to defend our country.
These guys are jokes
Is he really that stupid?
Stop using Afghan soil against Pakistan and Pakistan will definitely cooperate.
Its time USA should stop cultivating terrorism and stop financing terrorists organizations globally. Finally, they should stop utilizing tax payers money by deception.
Please do not blame Pakistan. You meaning America is at war with Taliban. Issues of war can only be resolved through dialog. Not by any other means. It is not our war.
Perhaps if the Americans and their pack of wolves in Britain and France had not laid waste to half the world, perhaps there would be no poverty and Blowback against them today. Perhaps.
"Although a journalist reminded him that Mr Khan chaired the meeting between the US and Pakistani delegations, Mr Bolton did not correct himself.
This caused some to speculate that perhaps Mr Pompeo wanted a separate meeting with the prime minister."
Love this part of story. This can only happened when Government is "MADE OF PAKISTAN".... Good Job IK
Usa wants Pakistan to clear the mess they created in Afghanistan then all will be well. The new PM has told that no more foreign military involvement by our forces.
What a blatant contradiction. US is pressing Pakistan to take action against Taliban but they, themselves holding a meeting in Qatar with Taliban. And who is Gulbadin Hikmatyar? Can US justify their interaction with him. US needs to admit that they have lost this battle in Afghanistan. They should leave the country and don’t sound like a cry baby.
For Pakistan relations with the US should now be confined to history. Whilst Pakistan should not ignore the US, but at the same time, we should well and truly move on.
@Ahmad_92 Since independence, China and Turkey have stood by Pakistan in good times and hard times. These are friends. And we have reciprocated in similar times for them.
So there are genuine friends who ensure their interests , if conflicting, never compromise our interests.
Same old song ....
That's the money you owe for the services provided not some aid or free money. PK should start adding up interests to it.
@Ahmad_92 ‘ If it is as easiest for terrorist to capture the nuclear weapons then USA would have certainly destroyed or seized these weapons with its so called superior technology.‘
They would, if they could but they cant, so they wont.
"Mr Bolton said during his visit to Islamabad, Secretary Pompeo wanted to meet Prime Minister Imran Khan but could not. " Most probably, he means Pompeo wanted to meet him in private. That way he could have given a message that he didn't want other US officials to know.
@ZAK - Welcome... I missed the fun of reading your post. Man your love for your country is unmatched. But try to bit more piratical... The moment you state the current Asia strategy is a failure does it means the previous one was successful.
Your hatred towards the name changes but the post that person holds is the same. Anyways welcome...
The Bolton has spoken but the mantra about our assets falling into wrong hands is rather over-worked.
The "Aid" was a Bribe to Nawaz's and Zardari's. Pakistan's GDP is 283.7 billion USD (2016) and the aid was 1B, You want giving up 283.7 billion USD (2016) for 1B USD???????? I say Good Ridance. No Aid is needed. That's all NS and Zardari's did. Go around asking for Bribe money so they can fill in their bank accounts.
Pakistan need to stand on its feet. There should be no Aid. Which ends up in the hand of the corrupts. This has been going on forever.
USA, mind your own business.
Not taken lightly is not believable because shooting from the hip is what the USA does in this admin. Losing allies is what it's famous for. USA needs PK much more than the other way.
@Asad
Unfortunately, it will not end well for anyone if they do what you want them to.
@Khan
Pakistan is, and always has been a true and most accommodating sanctuary.
@Pakistani ‘take measures to safeguard its strategic assets‘
Please detail exactly what those ‘assets’ are, and how you’d safeguard them.
I see Zia's belligerent Pakistan in this forum - wake up - guys - its Pak verses the rest of the civilized world - not everyone is wrong!
This guy has said something very serious. If establishment reads between the lines correctly, there is a very critical message regarding the nuclear assets. Be careful.
@babu ji "Pakistan's GDP is 283.7 billion USD (2016) and the aid was 1B, You want giving up 283.7 billion USD"
The problem is not the GDP. It is the debt to GDP ratio. You may wish to pick up an economics book and read before commenting.
@Zak "They would, if they could but they cant, so they wont."
You are assuming that they want to do the first place. Perhaps now is not the time for them to do so.
The f16s that we’re kept the non payment of coalition fund equates to roughly 50-60 billion time Pakistan took USA to the international court.
Pakistan new government has priority to do what the people of Pakistan want and need. Peace and prosperity.
All these actions are desperate attempts to weaken Pakistan...
Since I was a teenager I am listening to their threats and their concerns about our nuclear assests and now they sound like a broken record...
@brmurr Pakistan is an independent country, and present leadership will not allow what they want, weather it ends in good or bad for anyone or everyone. Such are the people who will rule the world in coming time.
@brmurr @Khan
Pakistan is, and always has been a true and most accommodating sanctuary.
Is that so, No proof of what you are stating.
@brmurr Bone of your concern, so dont worry, just enjoy this informative forum.
Pakistan is a nuclear power, and the Pakistan Military knows how to safeguard its assets, Trump just needs to worry about his own White house, where nothing is safe, not even conversation, it all leaks out.
SMH... I read a little more than half of the comments and have concluded that at least 95% of the IRPs population has a significant deficit of world knowledge (I’m no genius). Just when I was seeing an improvement, reality and disappointment set in.
This is the only reason Pampeo was in Pakistan...they just want to make sure that Pakistan does not help Palestine. They do not care about Pakistan as Bolton and Pampeo are enemies of Islam.
It is simply the business savvy Donald Trump's understanding of ROI (Return On Investment). That is how he dealt with Pakistan. It is a matter of dollars and sense.
Whenever America has taken decisions against Pakistan it has served as a blessing in disguise for Pakistan.
You cant straighten the tail of A dog. Its same for countries those provoke terrorism !
Mr Pompeo wanted a separate meeting with the prime minister.? Why?
@Owias they are trying to save tax payers money from going to nations that take and take and don't give a thing in return
No, No, No, Bolton suffers from a Disease called Trumpatitis in case you didn't know; its not his fault....He just forgets like his boss. May be its his age, he is getting up there you see.
USA has never claimed providing any proof of its charge to GOP or publicly.
@Zak How long will you depend upon others ?
@ZAK
So far you fought for US now you fight for Russia.
@mahesh "How long will you depend upon others ?" As long as it is in OUR interest.
@ZAK you honestly think you are in the russian and chinese league
Thank you America for suspending the bait. We have suffered enough in hands of a dishonest enemy pretending to be a friend.
A declining power ,defeated in Afghanistan &Syria.
This guy is crazy.
US please understand the Pak fought to full capacity, it's over now, the law of diminishing returns applies. Only talks are options.
Americans know that IK doesn't care much about US aid and will look for regional partnerships rather than a patron-client relationship with the American empire. Isolationist policies of Trump will expedite the downfall of US.
@BAXAR So you are dependent country and do not want to b independent.
@Asad : Just give us the money
@Asad : And the money!
Self-centered typical American chest beating.
Pakistan first.
Pakistan should refuse to toe Bolton's lines. USA should get out of this region and world will see the peace.
@mahesh And you fought for Russia and now you fight for US. Situation rebersed in your case.
@mahesh Not long. We have a new sherif in town- IK.