Sanctions against India, Pakistan about to ease

By Barry Schweid

Associated Press

WASHINGTON – The State Department has notified Congress it is moving to ease sanctions against Pakistan and India, administration and congressional sources said Friday.

Key House members were briefed Thursday and senators were being briefed Friday, all behind closed doors, said a House Republican aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The plan is to ease the sanctions early next week, he said.

The United States has engaged Pakistan to intercede with the Taliban movement in Afghanistan in an effort to force the expulsion of Osama bin Laden. He has been tagged the primary suspect in the terrorist attacks last week in New York and at the Pentagon.

An administration official told The Associated Press a final decision had not been made and that the administration consulted Congress about the sanctions policy and how best to try to curb the spread of dangerous technology.

The official, who declined to be identified, said it will be President Bush’s decision and indications were the sanctions would be eased.

Despite strong anti-American sentiment in the country, Pakistan agreed last week to share military intelligence with the United States, permit its airspace to be used by American military aircraft and to provide U.S. access to military facilities.

These commitments would enable the United States to use Pakistan in any assault on bin Laden, who operates his terrorism network from Afghanistan.

Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., D-Del., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement this week that Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has promised his nation’s “full unstinting support to us, at the time when we need it most.”

The chairman of the House International Relations Committee, Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., said he, too, was grateful for Pakistan’s support.

“We have to give something to them, and I think the sanctions have outlived their usefulness,” Hyde said.

A senior official said the administration has been talking about easing sanctions against both India and Pakistan since before the Sept. 11 attacks and wanted to consult with legislators before deciding.

The first Bush administration in 1990 stopped military and economic assistance to Pakistan over its suspected possession of nuclear weapons. In 1998 the Clinton administration blocked U.S. economic and military assistance to both Pakistan and India, along with military and high technology sales and U.S. support for World Bank loans.

In 1999, additional sanctions were applied to Pakistan after Musharraf led a military coup that ousted an elected government.

The sanctions involving the nuclear program can be waived by Bush but the 1999 sanctions would require congressional action.