{"id":17700,"date":"2017-09-01T19:47:47","date_gmt":"2017-09-02T02:47:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/?p=17700"},"modified":"2017-09-01T19:48:21","modified_gmt":"2017-09-02T02:48:21","slug":"must-declare-pak-state-sponsor-of-terrorism-pressler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/must-declare-pak-state-sponsor-of-terrorism-pressler\/","title":{"rendered":"Must Declare Pak State Sponsor of Terrorism: Pressler"},"content":{"rendered":"

Activists of India’s National Panthers Party shout slogans during a protest outside the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi, May 13, against alleged Pakistan-sponsored cross border terrorism. (Prakash Singh\/AFP\/Getty Images)<\/em><\/p>\n

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The U.S. must declare Pakistan a state sponsor of terrorism, a former top senator who was instrumental in imposing tough sanctions on Pakistan in 1990s has said, Aug. 31, as he welcomed President Donald Trump\u2019s decision to elevate ties with India, writes Lalit K. Jha.<\/b><\/p>\n

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Trump criticized Pakistan for providing safe havens to terror groups that kill Americans in Afghanistan while announcing his new Afghan and South Asia policy. He also warned Pakistan that it has \u201cmuch to lose\u201d by harboring terrorists.<\/p>\n

With the new South Asia strategy, the U.S. has moved closer to India and the Trump administration has elevated India to a new level, said former Republican Senator Larry Pressler, who is known in South Asia for his famous \u2018Pressler Amendment.\u2019<\/p>\n

Pressler advocated the amendment, enforced in 1990 when the then President George H.W. Bush could not certify that Pakistan was not developing a nuclear weapon.<\/p>\n

The amendment banned most U.S. economic and military assistance to Pakistan unless the President certified annually that Pakistan does not possess a nuclear explosive device.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have always treated India and Pakistan equally.<\/p>\n

Theoretically for the first time, President and the Secretary of State have said that we are going to treat India at a higher level,\u201d Pressler told PTI.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think, it\u2019s good news for India. I think Pakistan should realize (this). I wish he (Trump) would declare them a terrorist state. (But) I don\u2019t think he\u2019s going quite that far,\u201d the 75-year-old former Republican Senator from South Dakota said.<\/p>\n

He also said China will not \u201cembrace\u201d Pakistan as much as they say because they recognize that Pakistan is a very \u201cunreliable ally\u201d and they have been dishonest so much, is has caught up with them finally, Pressler said in response to a question whether Islamabad will seek more support from Beijing after Trump\u2019s outburst.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
File photo of former U.S. Senator Larry Pressler (r) listening to former Indian Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani during the inaugural ceremony of the \u2018Amritavarsham 50\u2019 festival in Cochin, Sept. 24, 2003. (Indranil Mukherjee\/AFP\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Interestingly, Pressler in his book, \u201cNeighbors in Arms: An American Senator\u2019s Quest for Disarmament in a Nuclear Subcontinent,\u201d which was released last month had made similar recommendations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a whole cadre of people in the Pentagon and the military industrial state who look on Pakistan as a compliant state. They are deceitful and they have not delivered. And they harbored Osama bin Laden and lots of other terrorists and they still are and they should be declared as quickly as we can. We should declare them a terrorist state and treat them as such,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said the relationship between the U.S. and Pakistan has always been \u201cflawed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Pakistanis have been dishonest every step of the way and they used this tactic over and over. And our Pentagon has yielded to them over and over informally as I say in my book.<\/p>\n

A lot of this has been under the color of our military industrial state,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think at last, we have a have a President who doesn\u2019t agree with this and we have a Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense. I think we\u2019re entering a whole new age. We should discard Pakistan in this false marriage false partner. We should end it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

However, Pressler said that it would be tough for the U.S. because Pakistan spends \u201cmillions and millions\u201d of dollars in lobbying in Washington.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m afraid we probably won\u2019t do that. But for the first time in my lifetime we\u2019re no longer saying India and Pakistan are equal diplomatically,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Activists of India’s National Panthers Party shout slogans during a protest outside the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi, May 13, against alleged Pakistan-sponsored cross border terrorism. (Prakash Singh\/AFP\/Getty Images) The U.S. must declare Pakistan a state sponsor of terrorism, a former top senator who was instrumental in imposing tough sanctions on Pakistan in 1990s…<\/p>\n

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