Trump to send deputies to Pak with tough message Iran open to talks over its ballistic missile arsenal
US president wants state support for terrorists to end
WASHINGTON:US President Donald Trump will dispatch his top diplomatic and military advisors to Pakistan in the coming weeks, turning up the heat on a nucleararmed ally accused of harbouring terror groups.
Weeks after Trump accused Islamabad of providing safe haven to “agents of chaos,” secretary of state Rex Tillerson plans to depart for Pakistan late this month. He will be followed by defence secretary Jim Mattis, according to sources.
The one-two punch is designed to drill home Trump’s message that Pakistani state support for jihadist groups has to end.
Washington has long been frustrated by Pakistan’s willingness to offer cross-border safe havens to Taliban factions and armed jihadist groups fighting US troops and their Afghan allies.
Trump came to office indicating that Washington’s frustration had reached the point where something had to give.
“We have been paying Pakistan billions of dollars at the same time they are housing the very terrorists that we are fighting,” he said in an August address.
But in the six weeks since, there have been precious few signs that the calculus in South Asia has changed.
Mattis told Congress this week that he will try “one more time” to “see if we can make this work.”
Visiting Washington, Pakistan’s foreign minister Khawaja Asif lashed out at “hollow allegations” about Pakistan harbouring terrorists as “not acceptable.” Privately, however, Pakistani officials complain about receiving no concrete requests to target terror groups.
US officials have been reticent to share some intelligence for fear of tipping off targets with links inside Pakistan’s government. ANKARA/LONDON/WASHINGTON: Iran has suggested to six world powers that it may be open to talks about its ballistic missile arsenal, seeking to reduce tension over the disputed programme, Iranian and Western officials familiar with the overtures told Reuters.
Tehran has repeatedly vowed to continue building up what it calls defensive missile capability in defiance of Western criticism, with Washington saying Tehran’s stance violates its 2015 nuclear deal with the powers.
But the sources said that given US President Donald Trump’s threats to ditch the deal reached under his predecessor Barack Obama, Tehran had approached the powers recently about possible talks on some “dimensions” of its missile programme.
“During their meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly last month, Iran told members of the (world powers) that it could discuss the missile programme to remove concerns,” an Iranian source with knowledge of the meeting said.
Iran’s reported approach came after Trump called the nuclear accord “an embarrassment” and “the worst deal ever negotiated”. He is expected to announce soon that he will decertify the deal, a senior administration official said on Thursday.
The other five powers are Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China, all of whom have reaffirmed commitment to the deal.