Former US National Security Advisor, Lt. General McMaster believes that any assistance provided to Pakistan should stop immediately and wanted to hold Imran Khan accountable for his recent remarks on the fall of Kabul.
Speaking on Pakistan and its double standards on terrorism, the former NSA bluntly said: "I don't think we should give any assistance to Pakistan at all. I think Pakistan has had it both ways for way too long. I think Pakistan should be confronted with its behavior over the years that has actually resulted, I think, in large measure in this outcome," International Forum For Right And Security (IFFRAS) reported.
"The Trump administration had blocked all aid to Pakistan and the Biden administration is yet to revive the same. McMaster also wanted Prime Minister Imran Khan to be held accountable for his recent comments on the fall of Kabul, when he said the Afghan people had been unshackled," he said.
Pakistan is at the receiving end of international criticism for its open support to the Taliban. It has been over two months when the Taliban captured Kabul after an aggressive and rapid advance against Afghanistan government forces after US military drawdown.
According to the Canada-based publication, McMaster's recent comments that Pakistan has for long had it both ways is to be welcomed as a wake call to the US administration to sanction Pakistan for its decades-long support to jihadi groups, like the Afghan Taliban and Haqqani network.
McMaster also said that during the presidency of Donald Trump he had advised the administration and its lawmakers not to provide any fresh aid to Pakistan. He also said the US needs to hold the current Pakistan Prime Minister accountable for some of his remarks on Afghanistan in recent days. The fact of the matter is that for too long, Pakistan has slept in bed with jihadi terrorists and simultaneously used American dollars to 'fight' the terrorists from the US, said a Canada-based think tank.
Former President Trump had ripped Pakistan in a speech announcing the mini-surge in Afghanistan (August 2017). He said, "We have been paying Pakistan billions and billions of dollars at the same time they are housing the very terrorists that we are fighting. But that will have to change, and that will change immediately."
The lesson learnt from that temporary suspension of aid to Pakistan should have been that Pakistan should not be trusted, for it is this country that had become the global jihadi factory. Yet, strangely enough, successive US administrations had continued to give military and other forms of aid to Pakistan. They lived in the false hope that Pakistan will improve. Today, with Pakistan firmly in China's pocket, it is all the more unlikely. Thus, the way forward for the US under President Biden will be to keep Pakistan at an arms distance, at least for the time being, IFFRAS reported.
( With inputs from ANI )
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