File photo of US President Donald Trump

The American party is over for Pakistan, for now. Uncle Sam has turned off the music, turned down the lights, and taken down all bells and whistles by suspending more than $ 1 billion in security assistance, all of which will resume only if Pakistan takes ''decisive action'' against terror groups that it has long nurtured and harbored.

"We can confirm that we are suspending national security assistance only to Pakistan at this time until the Pakistani government takes decisive action against groups, including the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Network . We consider them to be destabilising the region and also targeting US personnel," State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said on Thursday.

Other US officials said suspended assistance includes $ 900 million in Coalition Support Funds (CSF) authorized for 2017, in addition to the $ 255 million in foreign military sales assistance from 2016 that already stands frozen.

Pakistan believes CSF is reimbursement for services and logistics it provides to the US, and not assistance. But there have long been reservations and resentment in Washington about Pakistan stiffing the US both in the reasoning and the billing process relating to CSF, while at the same time providing safe havens to terror groups that attack US troops in Afghanistan .

President Trump is notoriously sensitive to being ripped off by allies, and he made known his pique in a sulfurous New Year’s Day tweet in which he accused Pakistan of "lies and deceit."

The suspension will not affect civilian aid, US officials said, while repeatedly emphasizing that the move was not permanent and Pakistan could earn it back with action against terror groups.

In fact, the US did not announce suspension of a further $ 255 million in military assistance allotted for fiscal 2017. Deadline for disbursement of that amount is September 30, 2018, and the US is dangling that and other frozen sums as carrots for Pakistan as it spirals into a financial abyss.

Separately, Washington also placed Pakistan, a country that constitutionally discriminates against minorities, including Muslim minorities, on a special watch list "for severe violations of religious freedom."

The Trump administration’s action comes as a moment of truth for Pakistan, which has reacted with bravado, bluster, fury, and outright lies so far to U.S warnings to change its policy of using terrorism for its professed need for strategic depth against India and roll up terror groups it has nurtured.

Pakistan officials repeatedly lied barefacedly that there were no terror groups on its soil and it was a frontline state fighting terror with sacrifices etc., even as the establishment publicly embraced and attempted to politically mainstream its UN-designated terrorist Hafiz Saeed . Its former military dictator Pervez Musharaf went so far as to praise Saeed and his Lashkar e Taiba while talking up poll alliances with terror groups.

Many other terrorists and terror groups operate with impunity in Pakistan with official patronage. The capture or killing of all major terrorist figures in the world on Pakistani soil, from Osama bin Laden to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, also gave lie to its claim of not being a safe haven, recalling similar Pakistani falsehoods about not being a nuclear proliferator, a lie that previous US administrations winked at and eventually forgave.

US officials virtually said Pakistan had the suspension of assistance coming because it did not change its policy or behavior despite several missives from Washington, all for its own good. Successive US administrations have now told Pakistan that India is not a threat to the country, while according to regional primacy to New Delhi on account of its size and stability.

"They (Pakistan) may say it's a surprise, but what is no surprise is that the President has expressed his concerns, Secretary Tillerson has expressed his concerns, as has Secretary Mattis, and I imagine many other government officials having those conversations with Pakistan," spokesperson Nauert said.

Separately, two other US officials who briefed the media on background characterized the Trump administration’s move as an "incentive" to change policy rather than as a punishment.

"We have not done anything that's irreversible here. All this funding is available to Pakistan, if they undertake to take the measures that we've asked of them," said one senior administration official.

Much of Pakistan’s public show of bravado appears to stem from domestic politics where each party is out to show its machismo even as its leaders suck up to Washington in private. Some of its leaders and talking heads have gone so far as to demand that Islamabad interdict US supply route to Pakistan.

But the Trump administration appears ready to call that bluff with further punitive action, including at multilateral forums, which could decimate Pakistan’s parlous economy.

Despite its much talked up ties with China and Saudi Arabia neither country has rescued Pakistan from its financial mess, and many Pakistani commentators are now pointing out that Beijing is actually exploiting Pakistan’s vulnerability with its China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project that is aimed at helping China more than Pakistan.

Earlier this week, Pakistan's central bank announced that it was replacing the dollar with the Chinese yuan for bilateral trade and investment with China. It still needs the dollar though for trade with much of the world.



In Video: Now, US suspends security assistance to Pakistan