WASHINGTON – US National Security Adviser (NSA) John Bolton breaks silenceover military aid cut to Pakistan.
He has said that the Trump administration’s decision to suspend militaryassistance to Pakistan was not taken lightly.
In an apparent address to a local think tank, the Federalist Society forLaw and Public Policy Studies, Bolton had said that the decision was takenbefore he joined the administration but, “It was done knowing fully wellthat Pakistan is a nuclear weapons state, and the risk that the governmentcould fall into the hands of terrorists that would get control of thosenuclear weapons was particularly serious,” some local and foreign mediaoutlets including Al Jazeera claimed.
Bolton was quoted in these reports saying that US wanted Pakistan tocooperate, and to convey the very message the Secretary of State MikePompeo traveled to Islamabad. “We hoped and expected that Pakistan wouldcooperate fully in the war against terrorism, which they had committed todo,” reports said.
However, the full speech he delivered at the think tank talked aboutPakistan just once and that too in reference to US Navy Seals mission thatkilled Osama bin Laden. He had announced US policy towards theInternational Criminal Court at the think tank on Monday. “The ‘crime ofaggression’ could become a pretext for politically motivatedinvestigations,” he said in his speech adding, “was the mission of US NavySeals that killed OBL in Pakistan a crime of aggression? What about the USand coalition strikes in Syria to protect innocent children from chemicalweapons?”