Source: TOI

WASHINGTON: Contending that US relationship with Pakistan had reached a dead end, an American lawmaker has said there was a sense among Congressmen that time had come to “side” with India to “cut off the ISI”.

Senator Mark Kirk said at a discussion forum by prestigious Washington-based think tank, Foreign Policy Initiative, that a US-India tie-up was ISI’s “horror story” but time had come for it to evolve.

“You know, Yogi Bear said when you reach a fork in the road, take it. I think we hit the fork in the road in August and September between the United States and Pakistan. We saw a large truck bomb assembled, lit off next to a US base, 77 US casualties,” Kirk said.

In recent times US’ ties with Pakistan, a key ally in the region, have plunged to an all-time low following a series of incidents over the year, including the killing of two people by a CIA contractor, the Abbottabad raid, and finally the NATO airstrike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

“My sense of the Senate and probably the House is we’re ready to take that fork in the road. We’re ready to side with India, to cut off the ISI,” the Illinois Senator said.
More: