US imposes new sanctions on Pakistan’s missile Program

ISLAMABAD, Dec. 19 (YPA) – The US State Department has announced new sanctions on Pakistan’s Ballistic Missile Program.

“The measures against the Pakistani National Development Corporation, which oversees the missile program, and three companies that cooperate with it are under an executive order targeting producers of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery,” the State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said on Wednesday.

The sanctions freeze any property in the United States of the targeted entities and prohibit Americans from doing business with them.

In contrast, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry described the US move as unfortunate and biased, saying: “It will harm regional stability by seeking to highlight the military disparity,” in a clear reference to the rivalry between Pakistan and India, two nuclear powers in Asia.

A US State Department document said the Islamabad-based National Development Complex sought to acquire components for its long-range ballistic missile program and missile testing equipment.

Pakistan conducted its first nuclear weapons test in 1998, becoming the seventh country to do so, and the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists estimates that Islamabad’s nuclear arsenal contains about 170 warheads.

AA