US Dy NSA says Pak’s ‘sophisticated missile’ could strike beyond South Asia, including America

WASHINGTON: US Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer, speaking at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said that Pakistan’s missile systems could potentially harm the US.

Speaking on the US President Joe Biden administration’s efforts to reduce nuclear dangers and adapt US nuclear weapons and non-proliferation policy to an uncertain world, Finer said that it raises questions on Pakistan’s intentions.

“Recently, Pakistan has developed increasingly sophisticated missile technology. From long range ballistic missile systems to equipment that would enable the testing of significantly larger rocket motors. If these trend lines continue, Pakistan will have the capability to strike targets well beyond South Asia, including in the United States, raising real questions about Pakistan’s intentions”, he said.

Finer said that with these reports, Pakistan seems to be a threat to US security. “The list of countries that possess both nuclear weapons and the missile capability to directly reach the US homeland is very small. They tend to be adversarial towards the United States- Russia, North Korea and China so candidly it’s hard for us to see Pakistan’s actions as anything other than an emerging threat to the United States”, he said.

Finer said that it posed a question as to why Pakistan would do this, because the US was an ally of Pakistan. “Leaders across our administration myself included have raised these concerns repeatedly with senior Pakistani officials we have been a longtime partner with Pakistan on development on counterterrorism and other security issues including quite sensitive issues. We’ve provided support to Islamabad during difficult times and we continue to desire a cooperative relationship in these areas of shared interest. That makes us question even more why Pakistan would be motivated to develop capability that could be used against us”, he said.

Finer further said that Pakistan failed to take seriously the sanctions posed by the US and from other countries in the region and continued building on its capabilities. “Unfortunately, it is our sense that Pakistan has failed to take these concerns and frankly, the concerns of others in the international community seriously and continues to advance these capabilities. As a result, the Biden Administration has implemented a series of steps to contend with further development of long-range missile systems.

“Over the last year, we’ve issued three rounds of sanctions against non-Pakistani entities that have provided support to Pakistan’s ballistic missile program and yesterday we issued sanctions directly against Pakistan’s state-owned National development complex, which the United States assesses is involved in the development and production of Pakistan’s long-range ballistic missiles. The first time we have sanctioned a Pakistani state-owned Enterprise tied to missile development,” he said.

Finer added that the US will continue its pressure Pakistan to mitigate its missile program. “Simply put, we’re going to keep the pressure on Pakistan regarding its long-range missile program even as we also continue to seek diplomatic resolutions to address our concerns and we encourage every other nation to do the same finally”, he said.

Finer further said that it was in everyone’s interests to ensure that Weapons of Mass Destruction are limited in the world. “It is in all of our interests to ensure that our nation prioritizes arms control and reduces WMD risks across the world in practice…even as we continue to modernize our nuclear forces”, he said.

The US sanctioned four entities that were contributing to Pakistan’s Ballistic Missile Program on Wednesday (local time). (ANI)