Defence Secretary Ashton Carter declined to give a certification to the Congress that Pakistan is taking sufficient action against the dreaded Haqqani network.
As a result, as per the House version of the Bill, the Obama administration must certify that Pakistan has met before releasing $450 million in aid.
Only punitive pressure against Pakistan can help in neutralising the Haqqani Network, says senior analyst B Raman
There is no move by the United States to begin the process of designating Pakistan as a state sponsor of terrorism, officials said, after the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton informed the Congress that the Haqqani network is being designated as a global terrorist organisation.
The dreaded Haqqani network has emerged as the 'most ominous threat' to the already fragile US-Pakistan ties as American officials believe the terror group has an 'ongoing relationship' with the ISI and the two were doing more than just talking, a media report has said.
The Pakistan-based Haqqani network is suspected to have carried out the brazen suicide attacks on western embassies and Parliament in Kabul, Afghanistan Interior Minister Bismillah Mohammadi has said.
The world today sees them (Pakistan) as the epicentre of terrorism, Jaishankar said.
In the strongest warning so far to Pakistan, the United States on Thursday said it is reaching the limits of its patience with Islamabad for allowing terrorist safe havens, specially the dreaded Haqqani network.
The United States at this point of time is not in a position to certify that there is no link between the Pakistan's spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence and the dreaded Haqqani network, a senior top American official has said.
The United States is likely to turn up the heat on Pakistan following the alleged involvement of the Haqqani network in the Kabul attacks, says Tahir Ali.
The US also rejected 2008 Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed's remarks that America and India have joined hands against the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which runs through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
The United States on Tuesday designated a top Pakistan-based Haqqani network commander, Mali Khan, as a foreign terrorist and slapped financial sanctions against him, aimed at crippling the finances to the dreaded outfit.
United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has told her Pakistani counterpart Hina Rabbani Khar to take strong action against terrorist groups particularly Lashkar-e-Tayiba and the Haqqani network, which is blamed for last week's deadly attack on American embassy in Kabul.
'Afghan people will not accept a governing structure that excludes women and minorities'
ISI chief Faiz Hameed coerced the Taliban to announce an interim government guaranteed to preserve Pakistan's control over the levers of power in Kabul, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Senator John Cornyn, Senate Majority Whip for the 114th Congress, in a letter to Obama, has said "it is ill-advised" to pursue any civil nuclear agreement with Pakistan.
United States President Barack Obama on Thursday evaded a question about whether he would be willing to cut off all assistance to Pakistan in the wake of allegations by recently retired chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen that the Haqqani network is a veritable arm of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence.
If Pakistan decides not to take action against the Haqqani network, the United States would carefully consider how to proceed ahead, a top US official said on Tuesday.
Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik has contended that the United States should share the blame for the rise of the Haqqani network as the Central Investigation Agency created the Taliban faction during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and trained its members.
United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has acknowledged that Washington's leverage with Pakistan to go after the Haqqani network, which has been killing US soldiers and is responsible for the attack on the US embassy in Kabul, was limited.
US special forces came away with hard drives, DVDs and a trove of documents from the Abbottabad safe house of Osama bin Laden which might tip American intelligence to Al Qaeda's operational plan and lead the manhunt to his presumed successor Ayman al Zawahiri.
While a section of Pakistani media has termed the visit of Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, to Pakistan as an effort to revive the complex relations between the two countries, the US official further put Pakistan into trouble when he blamed the latter's intelligence agency Inter Services Intelligence for contacts with the Haqqani Network.
Voicing concern that Pakistan is not doing enough against the Afghan-Taliban, including the Haqqani network, two top US Senators have warned Islamabad that any future terror attack against America or Europe that can be traced back to that country would invite "very serious" consequences.
While some reports say Sirajuddin Haqqani, the operational chief of Haqqani network has recently held a meeting with Afghan president Hamid Karzai in the presence of Pakistani Army chief Ashfaq Kiyani, Kabul-based sources reveal the meeting did not take place.
Pakistan-based Haqqani network is a deadly terrorist outfit, which is responsible for more than 90 percent of the civilian casualties in eastern part of Afghanistan, a top US military official based in this part of the war-torn country believes.
The Senate said that Pakistan should show that its taking demonstrable steps against the dreaded Haqqani Network terror outfit.
Pakistan is continuing support to the Taliban and the Haqqani network as part of its backup plan to secure their western border in case the United States leaves Afghanistan, a top US intelligence official has said.
The conditions are related to Pakistan's support to terrorists and terror outfits.
Pakistan has ordered a probe into the killing of the eldest son of the chief of the dreaded Haqqani network that has been blamed for attacks on the Indian Embassy and American forces in Afghanistan, a report said on Friday.=
"The war in Afghanistan is over, now we will work together to rebuild this country," said Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid at a press conference in Kabul.
United States President Barack Obama has signed into law the $618 billion defence budget for 2017, which enhances security cooperation with India and conditions nearly half of the funding to Pakistan on a certification that it is taking demonstrable steps against the Haqqani Network.
The Taliban had promised an 'inclusive' government that represents Afghanistan's complex ethnic makeup, but there is no Hazara member in the cabinet.
The US also termed the release of Mumbai-terror attack accused Hafiz Saeed as "a step backward" in that direction.
In a blunt message, the United States has asked Pakistan to intensify efforts to counter terrorist sanctuaries inside its borders and take concrete steps against the dreaded Haqqani network responsible for major attacks on American installations in Afghanistan.
Modi regretted that the international response to terrorism was weak and said more cooperation was needed to fight the menace.
In a blunt message to Pakistan, the United States has said that continued existence of terror safe havens in the country and its inability to take action against them affects their bilateral ties including security assistance.
"Our expectations are straight forward: Taliban and Haqqani leadership and attack planners should no longer be able to find safe haven or conduct operations from Pakistani soil," Pentagon Press Secretary Army Col Rob Manning told reporters during an off-camera news conference.
Poe alleged that Taliban is still based in Pakistan and it came as no surprise when a US drone strike killed Taliban leader Mullah Mansoor.
"Whether it is in Afghanistan or against India, groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) continue to operate with both impunity and encouragement," India's external affairs minister S Jaishankar said
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in the 2020 Country Reports on Terrorism issued on Thursday, said that regionally, terrorist groups continued to operate from Pakistan.
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