The United States is pressuring Pakistan to cease providing sanctuary – which it denies giving – to Islamist militants unleashing chaos in neighboring Afghanistan. The senior US official said in an interview that since the aid suspension – which US officials later said could affect as much as about $2 billion – the United States has not seen any sustained Pakistani effort against the militants. In the latest US-led push to spur Pakistani action, a global money-laundering watchdog decided to put the country back on its terrorist financing watch list, a Pakistani government official and a diplomat told Reuters in Islamabad. I think it’s feeling pressure,” said the US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. In a February 13 statement to Congress, US Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said Pakistan would maintain “its ties with militant groups, restricting counter-terrorism cooperation” with the United States.

Source: Pakistan Today February 24, 2018 01:18 UTC