By Yashwant Raj Washington 13th of September : The United States has sought to reduce concerns about the Biden administration’s proposal to sell of $450 million worth of spare parts and F-16-related services to Pakistan and Pakistan, claiming it’s part of an ongoing policy of providing “life cycle maintenance and sustainment programs for platforms with US origins”.
The US also wanted to emphasize in an unmistakable statement to Islamabad that the fighter jets were intended to assist in anti-terrorism activities and “we expect Pakistan to continue to take action against all terrorist organizations”.
Pakistan has been known to be infamously supportive to terrorists who are good, which it nurtures and uses to achieve its foreign policy goals in India — including Lashkar-eToiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad and many others -as well as Afghanistan – the Taliban who control the country.
The US State Department notified the Congress of the planned sale of $450 million last week, triggering worries in India because Pakistan has used the fighter jets, not just in counterterrorism operations, but also against India the most prominently in the month of February, 2019 in air war with Indian Air Force planes.
India claims to been able to shoot down an F-16 in the battle.
Pakistan is said to have upwards of 70 F-16s currently in service in the Air Force; the last batch of additions was delivered in 2014.
The plan of the Obama administration to sell eight more of F-16s -and in an arrangement that was subsidisedin 2016 in 2016 was thwarted by the US Senate that approved the deal in a 71-24 vote in opposition from both sides of the plan.
“The US government has notified the Congress of the possibility of a Foreign Military sales case to support the Pakistan Air Force’s F-16 program.Pakistan is a major partner in counter-terrorism and, as a an element of long-standing policy that the United States provides life cycle maintenance and sustainment plans for platforms that originate from the US,” said a Department of State spokesperson on Monday, responding to an inquiry for comments as the concern grew in New Delhi.
Pakistan’s F-16 program is an essential component of the wider bilateral relationship between Pakistan and the United States.The proposed sale will help maintain Pakistan’s ability to deal with the current and future threats to counterterrorism by ensuring the continued operation of the F-16 fleet.” the spokesperson stated.
Finally the spokesperson said “The F-16 fleet allows Pakistan to assist in counterterrorism operations and we are expecting Pakistan to take a long-term stance against any terrorist group.”
The sale proposal has generated lots of interest since it comes after a long and arduous period of tension in relations, highlighted recently by a lack of communications between US President Joe Biden and, first Premier Minister Imran Khan and then Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, even though others have been in contact.
There is also speculation about whether the $450 million plan may be the Biden administration’s way of thanking Pakistan for whatever role it might have played in the murder of Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al Zawahiri in Kabul.
The people of this viewpoint believe that Pakistan could have permitted the US to use its territory for the launch of the drone that killed Zawahiri and, furthermore, Islamabad used its hold on the Haqqani Network, whose leader Sirajuddin Haqqani is the Interior Minister of Afghanistan and has been able to provide Americans the location of the Al-Qaeda leader.
There is no evidence publicly available of the other.
The announcement of the proposed sale the US department of government which deals with these deals the Defence Security Cooperation Agency, stated that in order to avoid the usual alarm in India the deal “will not alter the fundamental the balance of power in the region” and, in addition “does not provide any new capabilities weapons, munitions or weapons”.
yashwant/khz/
