Pakistan to Abandon F-16 Purchase Plans Unless US Subsidizes Deal
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - The Pakistani prime minister's foreign affairs adviser Sartaj Aziz warned on Tuesday the country would find another supplier of combat aircraft instead of the United States if Washington failed to arrange funding for the F-16 selling to Islamabad.
"If funding is arranged, Pakistan will get the F-16s, otherwise we will opt for jets from some other place," the adviser said, as quoted by the Dawn newspaper.
The adviser previously said Islamabad could choose JF-17 Thunder jets jointly developed by Pakistan and China instead of US-produced F-16s.
Last week, a senior US State Department official said President Barack Obama’s administration mulled to abandon the plan to subsidize the $700-million deal to sell F-16s to Pakistan, demanding from Islamabad to pay the full price for the purchase.
The original arrangement required Pakistan to pay $270 million for the aircraft, with the remaining $430 million subsidized from the United States' budget, Sputnik reported.
The decision to scrap the subsidy came as the US Congress blocked the funding for the deal after Pakistan’s regional rival India expressed dissatisfaction with the planned purchase.
In mid-February, the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency said that the US Department of State had approved the sale of eight F-16 combat aircraft and other equipment to Pakistan. Shortly afterward, Indian Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar summoned US Ambassador Richard Verma to express dissatisfaction with the move.
