Robert L Grenier, a former CIA official has said that Pakistan was “nearly placed” on the list of state sponsors of terrorism during 1993 to 1994.
Grenier said that over the past five decades, the US has been willing, episodically, to overlook its concerns with aspects of Pakistani behaviour and to subordinate those concerns in the face of what have appeared, at the time, to be overriding national security priorities – only to revert to a more contentious relationship – when those interests no longer pertained.
In the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks – needing a platform for operations in Afghanistan and a partner to intercept Al-Qaeda militants fleeing that country – the US was again willing to subordinate its broader concerns with Pakistani-based militancy in Kashmir and with Pakistan’s ambivalent attitude towards the Afghan Taliban, he said.
Pakistan has clung stubbornly to its own perceptions of national interest and has refused to compromise them, even when they seemed irrational or self-defeating to US eyes, he said.
He also said the same has happened in the context of nuclear weapons doctrine, in its assessment of the threat from India, or in its calculus regarding both foreign and domestic militant groups. Pakistani adherence to its perceived interests, in fact, has persisted, irrespective of US-administered punishments or inducements, Greiner said.
However, the former CIA station chief in Islamabad warned lawmakers against taking any punitive action or sanctions against Pakistan. In fact, he encouraged the US to help Pakistan maintain a large conventional armed forces.
“The US dare not turn its back on Pakistan as it seeks to protect its serious national security interests in South-Central Asia,” Grenier said.
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