Pakistan Denounces US Sanctions on Ballistic Missile Program as “Discriminatory”
Pakistan has condemned new US sanctions on its ballistic missile program as “discriminatory” and a threat to the region’s peace and security. The sanctions, which freeze any US property belonging to the targeted businesses and bar Americans from doing business with them, were imposed on four entities, including the Islamabad-based National Development Complex, which the US claims worked to acquire items for developing Pakistan’s long-range ballistic missile program.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry warned that the sanctions have “dangerous implications for strategic stability of our region and beyond” and cast doubt on US allegations that the targeted businesses were involved in weapons proliferation, citing previous sanctions that were based on “mere doubts and suspicion without any evidence whatsoever.”
The ministry also accused the US of “double standards” for waiving licensing requirements for advanced military technology to other countries. The sanctions were opposed by the party of Pakistan’s imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan, with his spokesman criticizing the US administration for the move.
Analysts say Pakistan’s nuclear and missile program is primarily aimed at countering threats from neighboring India, and that the sanctions are “short sighted, destabilizing and divorced from South Asian regional strategic realities.” Pakistan became a declared nuclear power in 1998, and the two South Asian rivals have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir since gaining independence from Britain in 1947.