Former caretaker overseas minister Jalil Abbas Jilani on Thursday dismissed a press release made by US Director of Nationwide Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard over Pakistan’s missile capabilities posing a menace to the USA.
In a submit on X, the previous overseas minister maintained that the assertion that the “US homeland is inside vary of Pakistan’s nuclear/con missiles will not be grounded in strategic actuality”.
He stated that Pakistan’s nuclear doctrine was “India-specific, geared toward sustaining credible deterrence in South Asia, not projecting energy globally”.
On Wednesday, Gabbard, presenting the 2026 Annual Threat Assessment earlier than the USA Senate Intelligence Committee stated, “Russia, China, North Korea, Iran and Pakistan have been researching and growing an array of novel, superior, or conventional missile supply techniques with nuclear and standard payloads, that put our Homeland inside vary.”
“Pakistan’s long-range ballistic missile improvement may doubtlessly embody ICBMs with the vary able to placing the homeland,” she stated.
Gabbard stated that the nations recognized within the menace evaluation report “will possible search to know US plans for superior missile protection… for the aim of shaping their very own missile improvement applications and assessing US intentions concerning deterrence.”
She stated the intelligence group foresees a pointy rise in missile threats over the following decade. “…threats to the Homeland will increase collectively to greater than 16,000 missiles by 2035, from the present assessed determine of greater than 3,000 missiles.”
Analysts have Pakistan’s inclusion among the many primary nuclear threats as a continuation of earlier US coverage traits.
In December 2024, the same declare was made by a senior White Home official accused Pakistan of growing long-range ballistic missile capabilities that might finally enable it to strike targets outdoors of South Asia, together with within the US.
The identical month, the US stated it was imposing extra sanctions associated to Pakistan’s ballistic missile program, focusing on 4 entities that it alleged had been contributing to the proliferation or supply of such weapons.
