WASHINGTON – US National Security Advisor McMaster in an interview to Voiceof America has said that president Trump is frustrated, and he values whatwe hope would be a partnership with Pakistan.
But he’s frustrated at Pakistan’s behavior in that it continues to providesupport for these groups, it goes after terrorist insurgent groups, really,very selectively, and uses others as an arm of their foreign policy.
The president has great sympathy for the Pakistani people and inparticular, how much they’ve suffered at the hands of terrorists who havevictimized so many Pakistanis with mass murders, with that horrible massmurder in a school a few years ago. I mean, so, he empathizes with thePakistani people, and he wants to see the Pakistani government go afterthese groups less selectively.
This is not a blame game, as some would say. This is really our effort tocommunicate clearly to Pakistan that our relationship can no longer bearthe weight of contradictions, and that we have to really begin now to worktogether to stabilize Afghanistan.
And in a way, that would be a huge benefit to Pakistan, as well. What’sfrustrating at times is we see Pakistan operating against the interests ofits own people by going after these groups only selectively, by providingsafe havens and support bases for Taliban and Haqqani network leadershipthat operate out of Pakistan as they perpetuate hell in portions ofPakistan and in Afghanistan.
I traveled with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Pakistan years agowhen she was delivering news of an aid package — about $7 billion — asignificant amount for the Pakistanis. And I remember that the Pakistaniswere upset because we wanted to know how the money was going to be spent.
They were very upset. So, you have that incredible sort of disconnect thatdid not seem to me to be outrageous that we’d want to know how our moneywas going to be spent. On the other hand, when you don’t give money tothese countries, someone else steps in, so that’s the risk.
McMaster: Well, I don’t think … who’s going to step in now, I think, andwant Pakistan to continue its support for terrorist groups like the Haqqaninetwork, for groups like the Taliban? I mean, certainly it’s not in China’sinterest. China has a terrorist problem on its southern border, a terroristproblem that does have connections back into Pakistan. It’s not going to beany other country in the region, certainly, who will want Pakistan tocontinue this, really, pattern of behavior that we’ve seen, where it goesafter these groups only selectively, while it sustains and supports otherswho act as an arm of its foreign policy.
So, I think we’re confident that … I mean, Pakistan doesn’t want to becomea pariah state. Pakistan is a country with tremendous potential — humanpotential, economic potential. So, what we really would like to see isPakistan act in its own interest and to stop going after these groups onlyselectively, and to stop providing safe havens and support bases and otherforms of support for leadership.