Daily Times

A senior White House official on Thursday said nuclear-armed Pakistan is developing long-range ballistic missile capabilities that eventually could allow it to strike targets outside of South Asia, including the United States.

Deputy national security adviser Jon Finer said Islamabad’s conduct raised “real questions” about its intentions. “Candidly, it’s hard for us to see Pakistan’s actions as anything other than an emerging threat to the United States,” Finer said in a speech to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

The statement comes after the Foreign Office on Thursday said recent additional sanctions imposed by the United States on four Pakistani firms for their alleged involvement in the country’s ballistic missile programme were “biased” and “endanger regional and international peace”.

The statement came in response to the US announcing additional sanctions on four entities it claimed were contributing to the proliferation or delivery of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs).

According to the State Department, these comprised the Islamabad-based National Development Complex (NDC) and three Karachi-based companies: Affiliates International, Akhtar and Sons Private Limited, and Rockside Enterprise.

Previously, the US has also sanctioned other Pakistani firms, along with those of China and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), over alleged support of weapons and drone development programmes in Pakistan and Iran, among other issues.

“Pakistan considers the US decision to impose sanctions on NDC and three commercial entities as unfortunate and biased,” the FO said in a press release.

“Such double standards and discriminatory practices not only undermine the credibility of non-proliferation regimes but also endanger regional and international peace and security,” it added.

Asserting that Pakistan’s strategic capabilities were meant to “defend its sovereignty and preserve peace and stability in South Asia”, the FO said the latest instalment of sanctions “defies the objective of peace and security by aiming to accentuate military asymmetries”.

“Such policies have dangerous implications for strategic stability of our region and beyond,” the statement stressed.

Regretting the imposition of sanctions on the three Karachi-based private commercial entities, the FO said: “Similar listings of commercial entities in the past were based on mere doubts and suspicion without any evidence whatsoever.

“While claiming strict adherence to non-proliferation norms, licensing requirement for advanced military technology to other countries have been waived off in the past,” it noted.

The FO stated that Pakistan’s strategic programme was a “sacred trust bestowed by 240 million people upon its leadership”. “The sanctity of this trust, held in the highest esteem across the entire political spectrum, cannot be compromised,” it asserted.