The United States’ Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats (pictured above) told lawmakers on Tuesday that Pakistan was not cooperating with America in taking tougher action against militant groups, CNN reported.
The official said the actions that Pakistan has taken to date do not reflect an escalation of pressure against terror groups and are unlikely to have a lasting effect. “Ongoing Pakistani military operations against the Taliban and associated groups probably reflect the desire to appear more proactive and responsive to our requests for more actions against these groups,” Coats told the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Islamabad will maintain ties with militants and restrict counter terrorism cooperation with the United States, Coats added.
Place Pakistan on global terrorist-financing watchlist: US
The United States has tabled a motion to place Pakistan on a global terrorist-financing watchlist, Reuters reported on Tuesday. The motion could be adopted at a meeting of the Financial Action Task Force in Paris due next week. The FATF is an intergovernmental body that sets standards for fighting illicit finance globally.
Miftah Islmail, Pakistan’s de facto finance minister, told Reuters that the United States and Britain had put forward the motion a few weeks ago. He said the US had persuaded France and Germany to co-sponsor it.
“We are now working with the US, UK, Germany and France for the nomination to be withdrawn,” Ismail told Reuters. “We are also quite hopeful that even if the US did not withdraw the nomination that we will prevail and not be put on the watchlist.”
In August 2017, US President Donald Trump had criticised Pakistan for providing shelter to terrorists. In July 2017, the US had blocked $350 million (Rs 2,23,433 lakh) in aid to Pakistan for not taking enough action against the Haqqani network.
On January 1, Trump had claimed that Pakistan had given his country nothing but “lies and deceit” in return for $33 billion (Rs 2.10 lakh crore) in aid over the past 15 years.
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