US not sanctioning Pakistan

State Department spokesperson says ‘encouraged’ by recent actions

The United States has said that it was not considering any sanctions against Pakistan for not taking enough action against terrorist networks operating against neighbouring countries.

“The question was whether we’re looking at sanctioning Pakistan. No,” said US State Department Deputy Spokesperson Mark Toner during a news briefing on Wednesday.

During the briefing Toner was repeatedly asked about placing curbs on Pakistan, first in the context of the recent terror attacks in Afghanistan where a string of blasts in Kabul left at least 25 people dead. Then in the context of the 2008 Mumbai attacks in which 164 people, including six Americans, were killed.

Responding to questions, Toner said that the US was instead talking and working with Islamabad to resolve the issues.

“We’re working with Pakistan, we’re making our concerns clear that they need to go after all the terrorist groups that are operating or seeking safe haven on their soil,” Toner said, adding that the basic point in these conversations was that “Pakistan must target all militant groups, including those that target Pakistan’s neighbours”.

Talking about the recent attacks in Kabul, Toner also urged Afghanistan to do more to root out terrorist groups and to destroy them noting that it was in their ‘interest’ to do so.



“As yesterday’s terrible attacks [in Kabul] showed, we still have to work to go after those entities on the ground – Taliban and other – and root them out if they’re going to continue to carry out these kinds of attacks,” he said”

“The ultimate goal is we want to see peace and stability in the region, and so that’s going to involve efforts on Pakistan’s part, as well as the ability of Afghanistan and the Afghan Government to provide the stability and security to its own people.”

He acknowledged the work done by Pakistan which launched another operation in the Khyber agency on August 16 along the border with Afghanistan, and hoped to continue working with Islamabad.

“We have been encouraged by some of the steps they (Pakistan) have taken, some of their recent counterterrorism operations along the border of Afghanistan. And we’re going to continue to work with them to increase those efforts and apply more pressure on these groups.”

Asked about the 2008 Mumbai attacks, Toner said the US does want to see its perpetrators brought to book.

“We’ve been very clear that we want to see accountability and justice in the case of the Mumbai attacks,” he said.

The State Department official added that there should be greater counterterrorism cooperation between Pakistan and India on the matter.

“We’ve long encouraged and pushed for greater counterterrorism cooperation, and that includes the sharing of intelligence between India and Pakistan in that regard.”

Published in The Express Tribune, September 8^th, 2016.