WAHINGTON – The US State Department has informed Congress that the Trumpadministration’s decision to suspend its security assistance to Pakistanhas so far failed to achieve its objective: forcing Islamabad to change itspolicies.

Pakistan dominated part of Tuesday’s hearing at the Senate ForeignRelations Committee on the administration’s new South Asia strategy, asboth US officials and lawmakers acknowledged that Islamabad had a key rolein bringing peace to Afghanistan.

The committee’s Republican chairman, Senator Robert Corker, broughtPakistan into the discussion in his opening remarks, praising the Trumpadministration’s Jan 4 decision to suspend US security aid to Pakistan.

“This administration has also rightly drawn a clear line with Pakistan,suspending security assistance of over a billion as long as Islamabadcontinues to shelter Haqqani, and other terror groups that target innocentcivilians, as well as US and allied forces,” he said.

But Senator Ben Cardin, the committee’s senior Democrat, wanted to know ifthe decision had brought “any change” in Pakistan’s behaviour.

Official says security assistance can be restored if Islamabad takes‘decisive and sustained’ action against terrorist groups

“There certainly hasn’t been any change that we would consider final andirrevocable,” said Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan, one of the twosenior US officials who represented the administration at the hearing.“They have engaged in discussions with us, but there hasn’t been asufficient amount of action yet such that we would be lifting thatsuspension of security assistance.”

Asked if the Pakistanis knew what the US expected from them, Mr Sullivansaid: “They understand what we expect, our suspension of securityassistance continues until we see more evidence that they are in facttaking action”.

Randall G. Schriver Assistant Secretary, Asian and Pacific SecurityAffairs, US Department of Defence, however, told the committee thatWashington believes Pakistan was not just an important partner but “they’reabsolutely key to our strategy succeeding”.

He said that during a recent visit to Islamabad, US Secretary of DefenceJames Mattis made clear Washington’s “interest in continuing to partnerwith them,” but he also “made clear that we must see a change in Pakistan’sbehaviour in particular areas where we have great concerns”.

Earlier at the hearing, Mr Sullivan also read out a written statement,stating that the US could resume security assistance to Pakistan ifIslamabad takes “decisive and sustained” actions against all terroristgroups in the country.

But the statement also added new conditions for rebuilding US ties withPakistan, which may not be acceptable to Islamabad, such as seeking morerestraint in Pakistan’s military nuclear and missile programmes and closeralignment of the country’s non-proliferation policies with those of the US.

“We also encourage restraint in Pakistan’s military nuclear and missileprogrammes, and seek continued, closer alignment of Pakistan’snon-proliferation policies with our own,” he said.