Suspension of military aid to Pak to continue: US

Though civilian assistance is unchanged,won't allow military aid with cutback on trainers: US

US has made it clear it will not lift the hold on its $800 million military aid to Pakistan,reiterating that Islamabad needs to takes steps in the war against terrorism.

“While our civilian assistance continues unchanged,on the security side,on the military side,we have had to make some changes based on cooperation. We need to have the appropriate military personnel in. If all the training assistance is going forward,we have to have the trainers there,” State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland told reporters.

US had put on hold military aid to Pakistan worth $800 million following Islamabad’s request for a “significant cutback” of American military trainers on its soil.

“On counter terrorism,the level of our ability to work together depends on continuing to strengthen this dialogue. So we didn’t see anything particularly new in this,” Nuland said in response to a question about a news report appearing in The Wall Street Journal in this regard.

“The supposed baskets speak to the conversation we’ve had here about the need to continue to strengthen CT (counter terrorism) cooperation and the many visits we’ve had to continue to try to do that.

“Our desire to see Afghanistan and Pakistan work closely together is,as you know,not a new subject for us,and that’s why we sponsor the core group and work so hard to help them develop a better relationship,” she said.

Nuland said the relationship with Pakistan “is not an easy one” but an extremely important one.

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Meanwhile,a key US Senator came out in support of White House’s latest move to link US aid to Pakistan with Islamabad’s progress in the war against terrorism. “Pakistan must show that it will no longer tolerate terrorist and criminal elements determined to commit violence against the US and our allies,and after all,actions to ferret out these elements are in the national security interests of Pakistan as well,” Senator Bob Corker said.

Croker’s comment came following a report in ‘The Wall Street Journal’ that the White House has begun associating aid to Pakistan based on its progress in combating al-Qaida and other extremists. “If news reports are accurate,the administration is right to finally be recognizing that our country’s relationship with Pakistan on security issues is unfortunately — transactional,and therefore our aid should be tied to their efforts against al-Qaeda and other extremists,” Croker said.

“Our national security is greatly affected by what happens in Southwest Asia,and the American people need assurance that we have a real and lasting partnership with the Pakistanis,who we depend on for security and intelligence cooperation in the fight against international terrorists. With so many taxpayer resources at stake,this apparent change in policy is long overdue,” the Senator said.

Under the new approach,as reported by ‘The Wall Street Journal’,the office of the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper is compiling classified scorecards that track Pakistan’s cooperation in four areas,referred to in the White House as “baskets”.

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The four baskets are: Pakistani cooperation in exploiting the bin Laden compound; Pakistani cooperation with the war in Afghanistan; Pakistani cooperation with the US in conducting joint counter-terrorism operations; and cooperation in improving the overall tone in bilateral relations.

The White House had announced in July that it was withholding $800 million,or about a third of US security aid to Pakistan.

Pakistan said this wouldn’t have “any significant impact” on the country’s military operations but would damage trust between the two countries.