Pakistan on Thursday denounced new US sanctions on the country\u2019s ballistic missile program as \u201cdiscriminatory\u201d that put the region\u2019s peace and security at risk. <\/p>\n
Pakistan\u2019s foreign ministry warned in a statement that the sanctions \u201chave dangerous implications for strategic stability of our region and beyond.\u201d <\/p>\n
It also cast doubt on US allegations that targeted businesses were involved in weapons proliferation because previous sanctions \u201cwere based on mere doubts and suspicion without any evidence whatsoever.\u201d <\/p>\n
It also accused the US of \u201cdouble standards\u201d for waiving licensing requirements for advanced military technology to other countries. <\/p>\n
The sanctions freeze any US property belonging to the targeted businesses and bar Americans from doing business with them. <\/p>\n
The US State Department said one such sanctioned entity, the Islamabad-based National Development Complex, worked to acquire items for developing Pakistan\u2019s long range ballistic missile program that includes the SHAHEEN series of ballistic missiles. <\/p>\n
The other sanctioned entities are Akhtar and Sons Private Limited, Affiliates International and Rockside Enterprise. <\/p>\n
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Wednesday on X that the US had \u201cbeen clear and consistent about our concerns\u201d over such weapons proliferation and that it would \u201ccontinue to engage constructively with Pakistan on these issues.\u201d <\/p>\n
The sanctions were also opposed by the party of Pakistan\u2019s imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan. <\/p>\n
Zulfiqar Bukhari, a Khan\u2019s spokesman, took to the social platform X to criticize the administration of US President Joe Biden, saying \u201cwe strongly oppose US sanctions on the National Development Complex and three commercial entities.\u201d <\/p>\n
The latest US sanctions came months after similar measures were slapped on other foreign entities, including a Chinese research institute, after the US State Department accused them of working for the National Development Complex, which it says was involved in the development and production of Pakistan\u2019s long-range ballistic missiles. <\/p>\n
Analysts say Pakistan\u2019s nuclear and missile program is primarily aimed at countering threats from neighboring India. <\/p>\n
Security expert Syed Muhammad Ali called the sanctions \u201cshort sighted, destabilizing and divorced from South Asian regional strategic realities.\u201d <\/p>\n
Pakistan became a declared nuclear power in 1998, when it conducted underground nuclear tests in response to those carried out by its rival and neighbor India. The two sides regularly test-fired their short, medium and long-range missiles. <\/p>\n
The two South Asian rivals have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir since gaining independence from Britain in 1947. The disputed Himalayan region is split between them and claimed by both in its entirety. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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Pakistan on Thursday denounced new US sanctions on the country\u2019s ballistic missile program as \u201cdiscriminatory\u201d that put the region\u2019s peace and security at risk. Pakistan\u2019s foreign ministry warned in a statement that the sanctions \u201chave…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1733,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}