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The Trump administration should "levy costs on Pakistan" for perpetuating terrorism, top US thinktanks today recommended, asserting America should no longer sacrifice its anti-terrorism principles in the region for the sake of pursuing an "even-handed" South Asia policy.
"For too long, the US has given Pakistan a pass on its support for some terrorist groups based in Pakistan, including those used against India. The US squandered a valuable opportunity in the aftermath of 9/11 and the 2001-2002 India-Pakistani military crisis to alter the Pakistani military's fundamental calculations on the use of terrorism for foreign policy ends," said the report prepared by eminent South Asia experts from nearly 10 top American thinktanks.
"The objective of the Trump administration's policy toward Pakistan must be to make it more and more costly for Pakistani leaders to employ a strategy of supporting terrorist proxies to achieve regional strategic goals," said the report, which would be formally released on Friday.
"There should be no ambiguity that the US considers Pakistan's strategy of supporting terrorist proxies to achieve regional strategic advantage as a threat to US interests. US policy must also pay attention to non-proliferation goals while dealing with Pakistan," it said.
The report, which is believed to have become part of the internal deliberations of Donald Trump's administration, on what to do with Pakistan says as a first step, the US must warn Pakistan that its status as a Major Non-NATO Ally (MNNA) is in serious jeopardy.
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"Unless Pakistan takes immediate steps to demonstrate that it fully shares US counterterrorism objectives, the US will revoke its MNNA status within six months," it said.
"Present to Pakistan a list of calibrated actions for ending its support to the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Network, and make clear that failure to make substantial progress on these steps could eventually result in Pakistan's designation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism," it recommends.
"If Pakistan does not make progress on the above steps, the US should consider compiling a list of Pakistani military and Inter-Services Intelligence officials, current and former, who are known to have facilitated acts of terrorism- including supporting the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani network - and barring them from travel to the US," the report said.
With India-Pakistan tensions on the rise, the report recommends that the Trump administration must formulate a new policy approach toward Pakistan quickly.
Both Indian and Pakistani officials have ratcheted up their rhetoric toward the other in recent weeks, and neither shows much interest in reviving dialogue.
Running into 18-pages and titled 'A New US Approach to Pakistan: Enforcing Aid Conditions without Cutting Ties,' the report was prepared by Lisa Curtis (The Heritage Foundation), Christine Fair (Georgetown University) Col (retd) John Gill (National Defense University), Anish Goel (New America), and Husain Haqqani (Hudson Institute).
And Polly Nayak (Independent Consultant), Aparna Pande Hudson Institute), Bruce Riedel (Brookings Institution), David S Sedney (Center for Strategic and International Studies) and Marvin Weinbaum (Middle East Institute).
Another major terrorist attack in India conducted by Pakistan-based militants could precipitate a wider conflict that has the potential of going nuclear, the report warned.
After years of restraint in the face of Pakistani terrorist provocations, the government of Narendra Modi has laid down a new marker that it will not stand by in the face of such attacks.
India's September 28-29 cross-Line of Control strikes against terrorist bases on Pakistani territory were welcomed as a catharsis by the Indian public, whose frustration with Pakistan had reached a tipping point, it said.
"The new US administration must be prepared for the possibility of an escalation in Indo-Pakistani tensions and plan ahead for how it would intervene to defuse any potential military crisis between the nuclear-armed rivals," it said.
It would be helpful for Trump administration officials to examine the US role in helping to defuse past India-Pakistan crises, like the 1999 Kargil border conflict and the 2001-2002 Indo-Pakistani military stand-off, said the report.
In both cases, the US took a firm stance against Pakistani support for anti-India militant groups and resisted Pakistani calls for the US to play a mediator role in Kashmir.
In this way, the US sent a clear signal that it held Islamabad responsible for the escalating regional tensions, the report reminded the Trump administration.
The report says with decreasing US military aid to Pakistan and Pakistani leaders will seek to strengthen ties to traditional allies like China and Saudi Arabia and also explore new partnerships as with Russia.
"Fortunately, these nations share the US goal of containing terrorism in the region and preventing Indo-Pakistani hostilities and may be cooperative with the US, especially in crisis circumstances. In any case, Washington's policy should not be constrained by fear that other countries will displace the US role in Pakistan," the report observes.
The report says the US should no longer settle for Pakistan's excuses for delaying a full-throttle crackdown on these terrorist groups and should instead hold Pakistan accountable for the activities of all terrorist groups on its soil.
However, the report recommends against designating Pakistan a State Sponsor of terrorism.
"Designating Pakistan a 'State Sponsor of Terrorism' early in the Trump administration, as some in Congress have recommended, would preclude the US from providing any kind of aid to Pakistan and would lead to an irreparable breach in the relationship," it noted.
"While Pakistan frequently does not behave like an ally, it does selectively cooperate with the US If Pakistan's overall conduct does not change, however, the US should be prepared to review whether Pakistan fits the criteria for designation as a 'State Sponsor of Terrorism,' in accordance with the graduated measures proposed above," it observed.
