Pakistan more of a threat than an ally: US think tank

TIL Desk/World/Washington/ Pakistan is still a sanctuary for the Taliban and the Haqqani network and more of a threat than an ally, a top US think tank has said, while asserting that the Trump administration should make it clear to Islamabad that it will face sanctions if it continues to support them.

“Afghanistan is currently doing badly both in the fighting and in its civilian politics, governance, and poverty. Pakistan is still a sanctuary for the Taliban and Haqqani network and more of a threat than an ally,” the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said in a report released yesterday.

Authored by Anthony H Cordesman, CSIS’s Arleigh A Burke, Chair in Strategy, the report said there has to be a better strategy and a better approach to both the military and civil dimensions of the war to provide a reason to stay.

“No commitment should be open ended. The Afghans have to do far more, and do it far better, to justify each future year of US commitment,” the report said. “The United States should make it clear to Pakistan that it faces a total end to aid, and the imposition of sanctions, if it continues to support the Taliban and tolerate the Haqqani network,” it said.