Top US general says ISI has links to terror groups
WASHINGTON: The US has said it will “try one more time” to work with Pakistan to end its support for terrorists even as a top American general accused the InterServices Intelligence (ISI) of having ties to terror groups.
Defence secretary James Mattis told a House Armed Services Committee hearing on the US strategy for South Asia that America and its allies plan to present Pakistan with a list of what it must to do “change its behaviour”, with the warning that non-compliance could include revoking its status as a major NON-NATO ally.
In a separate Senate hearing on Tuesday, Marine Corps Gen Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he believed Pakistan’s main spy agency had ties to terror groups.
“It is clear to me that the ISI has connections with terrorist groups,” he told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Mattis said, “We need to try one more time to make this strategy work with them, by, with and through the Pakistanis, and if our best efforts fail, President (Donald) Trump is prepared to take whatever steps necessary.”
Asked if those steps could include revoking Pakistan’s status as a major NON-NATO ally, which comes with certain military benefits conferred on it by the US in 2004 in return for its cooperation in the war in Afghanistan, Mattis simply said, “I am sure it will be.”
Frustration has been mounting in the US with Pakistan’s dodgy record on counter-terrorism and its use of groups sheltering on its soil as a tool of its foreign policy. Lawmakers and officials have tried everything from name-calling – “duplicitous” and “frenemy” – to tying up aid for its fight against terror.