*NEW DELHI:* The US’s new National Security Advisor (NSA) John Bolton,known for being an extreme hawk in diplomatic circles, may not be as hardon Pakistan as his President Donald Trump wants him to be, reported *Timesof Indialink>*.link>

Media interviews with Bolton – named NSA yesterday – from the recent pastsuggest that while he believes Pakistan does need to be dealt with firmly,the US needs to strike a delicate balance in the matter and leave the heavylifting to China.

That’s because Bolton – a former US ambassador to the UN – believes thatPakistan, a nuclear weapons state, is perpetually teetering on the brink ofembracing Islamic extremism and terror. And pushing it too hard could welllead to it becoming “a terrorist country with nuclear weapons”, or asBolton described it last August to *Breitbart.com*, “Iran or North Korea onsteroids”.

Bolton’s interview with *Breitbart*took place right after Trump announcedhis administration’s new policy on Afghanistan, which entailed puttingpressure on Pakistan to end what Trump described as “safe havens to agentsof chaos and terror”.

Bolton said he believes the US goal should be preventing the Taliban fromtaking back control and a key ally in the fulfilment of that goal, whetheranyone likes it or not, is Pakistan.

“…it’s clear the president wants to pressure Pakistan more. Well, I agreewith that, and I think Obama didn’t pressure them enough… But there’s areal problem with simply saying, ‘By God, we’re going to squeeze Pakistanuntil they finally push the Taliban, the Haqqani network, Gulbuddin Hekmatiout of the privileged sanctuaries they’ve had in Pakistan, push them backinto Afghanistan, and stop supplying them, stop giving them weapons, stopgiving them money’”, said Bolton to *Breitbart.*

Bolton said the problem with such an approach is that it might lead to asituation where anti-US sentiment fuels popular support for Islamistradicals and the Taliban.

“If you push too hard, this government in Pakistan is fragile. It has beensince the partition of British India …The military in Pakistan itself is atrisk, increasingly, of being infiltrated through the officer ranks byradical Islamists. Many people believe the intelligence services unitalready is heavily dominated by Islamists,” he explained.

If radicals take over the Pakistan government completely, it’s “theultimate risk” said Bolton.

“…if Pakistani Taliban or other radicals took control of that country, itwouldn’t just be another base to launch terrorist operations against us orWestern Europe. It would be a terrorist country with nuclear weapons, so itwould be Iran or North Korea on steroids right now,” he warned.

Too much pressure on Pakistan could backfire, Bolton wrote last August in *TheWall Street Journal*.

“Putting too much pressure on Pakistan risks further destabilising thealready volatile country, tipping it into the hands of domestic radicalIslamicists, who grow stronger by the day. In this unstable environment,blunt pressure by the US—and, by inference, India — could backfire,” saidthe now NSA in a column for the Journal.

Here’s where China can step in and should be pressured to, the new NSA said.