Committed to ending terror safe havens in Pak, the Trump Administration is trying "something new"

Washington: The Trump administration believes that it is time to try something new other than maintaining strategic patience and offering inducements to Pakistan to stop it from continuing as a safe haven for terrorists from where they can attack the US and its allies, a senior official said today.

He said the polices followed by the successive US administrations post 9/11 with regard to Pakistan have not worked at all.

The United States is determined and committed to not allowing Pakistan to continue as a safe haven for terrorists from where they can attack the US and its allies, said the senior Trump administration official who spoke to a group of reporters on condition of anonymity.

"These (terror) sanctuaries really threaten stability in the region and they continue to fuel the overall terrorism problem that we're facing," he said.

Noting that the "previous administrations have tried to exercise what they might call strategic patience or offering inducements like the Kerry-Lugar-Berman bill which gave billions of dollars to Pakistan", the official said, stressing that none of it has worked so far.

Terrorists continue to operate freely inside Pakistan and there is a relationship between terrorist organisations and the Pakistani establishment, he said.

"It has so thoroughly shocked the elites that we actually are going to protect America, and defend America, and that we're actually going to render judgement," he said.

"If you kick us in the shin, we're not going to pay you," Mr Gingrich said.