Pakistan could pull back troops fighting Islamist militants near the Afghan border if the United States cuts off aid, the defense minister said on Tuesday in an interview with Pakistani media.
The United States Monday said it would hold back $800 million — a third of nearly $2 billion in security aid to Pakistan — in a show of displeasure over Pakistan's removal of U.S. military trainers, limits on visas for U.S. personnel and other bilateral irritants.
"If at all things become difficult, we will just get all our forces back," Defense Minister Ahmed Mukhtar said in an interview with the Express 24/7 television to be aired later on Tuesday.
The television aired excerpts of the interview Tuesday.
"If Americans refuse to give us money, then okay," he said. "I think the next step is that the government or the armed forces will be moving from the border areas. We cannot afford to keep military out in the mountains for such a long period."
Story: US aid cutoff followed by drone strike in Pakistan
In Pakistan, the defense minister is relatively powerless. Real defense and military policy is made by the powerful Chief of Army Staff, General Ashfaq Kayani, and the head of the Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence, Lieutenant-General Ahmed Shuja Pasha.
Pakistan is an important ally of the United States but relations between the two uneasy allies have been on the downward spiral since last year when a CIA contractor killed two Pakistanis in January and then U.S. Navy SEALS killed Osama bin Laden in a secret raid in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad in May without informing Islamabad beforehand.
Islamabad sees the May 2 raid as a breach of its sovereignty and has drastically cut back on the numbers of U.S. troops allowed in the country and has set clear limits on intelligence sharing with the United States.
In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Colonel David Lapan on Monday said the $800 million in U.S. aid put on hold could be resumed if Pakistan increased the number of visas for U.S. personnel and reinstated the training missions.
Story: US defers millions in Pakistani military aid
The United States provides hundreds of million of dollars a year to reimburse Pakistan for deploying more than 100,000 troops along the Afghan border to combat militant groups.
Drone strikes
On Tuesday, suspected U.S. missile strikes in northwestern Pakistan killed around 45 alleged militants , an unusually heavy barrage at a time when relations between the two countries are badly strained, Pakistani intelligence officials said.
The attacks indicate the White House has no intention of stopping the unmanned drone program even though the attacks have increasingly caused tension with Pakistan.
In the latest strike, suspected U.S. missiles hit a house in Dremala village in the South Waziristan tribal area early Tuesday, killing at least eight alleged militants, said two Pakistani intelligence officials. Two other Pakistani intelligence officials put the death toll from the strike at 13. The village is located close to the border with North Waziristan.
Before dawn Tuesday, suspected U.S. missiles hit a house in Shawal area of North Waziristan, killing 10 alleged militants, said Pakistani intelligence officials.
Turn towards China?
The decision to suspend more military aid could end up hurting Washington more than Islamabad as the U.S. seeks to navigate an end to the Afghan war and defeat al-Qaida, former Pakistani officials and analysts have warned.
Holding back the $800 million in aid is unlikely to pressure Pakistan to increase cooperation with the U.S. and could strengthen those in the government who argue that Washington is a fickle ally who can't be trusted, they told The Associated Press.
"If you still need the relationship, which clearly the United States does, then it really doesn't make sense to take action at this time because it leaves the United States with less, not more, influence with the Pakistani military," Maleeha Lodhi, a former Pakistani ambassador to the U.S., told the AP on Monday. "Cooperation cannot be coerced by punitive actions."
As if to back up its threat to withdraw troops from key areas, Pakistan's military said Tuesday it could do without U.S. assistance by depending on its own resources or turning to "all-weather friend" China.
Mukhtar later told Reuters Pakistan wanted the money spent on the maintenance of the army in the tribal areas. "This is what we are demanding," he said. "It is our own money."
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