#PulwamaAttack - Trump bluntly tells Pakistan to end terrorism

The Trump White House on Friday bluntly asked Islamabad to “end immediately the support and safe haven provided to all terrorist groups operating on its soil” following the Pulwama attack, going much beyond a more cautious state department approach towards Islamabad. Although the State Department also condemned the attack in the “strongest terms” and said the “United States is resolutely committed to working with the Indian government to combat terrorism in all its forms,” it lamely called on “all countries to uphold their responsibilities pursuant to UN Security Council resolutions to deny safe haven and support for terrorists,” — as if, given that the statement was about the Pulwama attack, there was more than one country playing host to UN-designated terrorists.

President Trump’s office had no such equivocation as it implicitly accused Pakistan of fostering and inflicting terrorism on the region. Terming it a “heinous” terrorist attack, the White House said “The United States calls on Pakistan to end immediately the support and safe haven provided to all terrorist groups operating on its soil, whose only goal is to sow chaos, violence, and terror in the region.”

“This attack only strengthens our resolve to bolster counterterrorism cooperation and coordination between the United States and India,” the statement added, going beyond the State Department’s formulation that “The United States is resolutely committed to working with the Indian government to combat terrorism in all its forms.” President Trump has whittled down US aid to Pakistan to almost zero, a policy that does not sit well with many State Department bureaucrats who believe Washington should continue to lubricate a state closely identified with the use of terrorism as a policy instrument.

It’s not often that the White House and the State Department read from a different page, but in this case, the White House unequivocally went beyond the rather circumspect formulation in Foggy Bottom to call out Pakistan for its terrorism. It is not clear if this was the result of any direct intervention by Trump, who is not known to pull punches in identifying adversaries, and who does not see Pakistan in any considerate light given its long and transparent history of hosting terrorists. The US President was engaged for the most part on Thursday and Friday with the scrap over border wall funding as he prepared to declare a national emergency.