India 'disappointed' with US sale of F-16s to Pak, will summon envoy

WASHINGTON: Despite objections from India and some US lawmakers, the Obama administration on Friday defended its decision to sell eight F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan."We support the proposed sale of eight F-16s to Pakistan to assist Pakistan's counterterrorism and counterinsurgency operations. Pakistan's current F-16s have proven critical to the success of these operations to date," state department spokesperson Helaena W White said.The Pakistan Embassy in Washington appreciated the Obama administration's determination to go ahead with the proposed sale, the Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported on Saturday.The US government announced on February 12 that it had approved the sale to Pakistan of up to eight additional F-16 fighter jets, as well as radars and other equipment, in a deal valued at $699 million.India and some US lawmakers have objected to this sale, saying that the F-16s have not been useful in such operations and would ultimately be used against India.India had said that it disagreed with the US's rationale that the supply of F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan will help combat terrorism but at the same time it had noted that its ties with Washington were not a single-issue relationship.At least two US senators have announced they intend to try and stop the sale despite the administration having vetted the deal with backdoor approvals.On Thursday, senator Rand Paul joined his colleague Bob Corker, the senate foreign relations committee chairman, in opposing the sale, saying he has introduced a resolution of disapproval seeking to halt all arms sales to Pakistan. If passed, the measure would also stop the F-16 sale , which needs to be approved by the Senate before March 12.They appear to have the backing of veteran senator John McCain, whose three decades in the Senate has overseen billions of dollars in foreign aid to Pakistan, but who now has second thoughts about the F-16 supply. "I would rather have seen it kicked over into the next administration," McCain said on Thursday, saying he was "conflicted" on the timing of the announcement."This is really a tough one for me and for a lot of people. I think the timing was really bad on this issue," the former presidential candidate told the Defense Writers Group on Thursday, pressing for a hearing by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where the administration will have to explain and defend the deal to a country many lawmakers believe uses terrorism as a policy tool.Opposition to the deal is bipartisan. "Pakistan must prove it is taking substantive steps to go after all terrorist groups in the country before we move forward with the sale of F-16s," said California congressman Ami Bera, an Indian-American Democrat. "So far, Pakistan has not shown willingness to go after groups like the Haqqani network and Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is why I cannot support a sale at this time."While US lawmakers have until March 12 to block the sale, such action is rare since deals are usually well vetted before any formal notification, and it remained unclear if lawmakers would thwart the deal.