US shouldn’t sell nuclear-armed version of F-16 to Pakistan – Republican Head

Washington: With the Obama Administration contemplating selling F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan, the top Republican leadership has expressed concern over it and said the US should not sell nuclear armed fighter jets to Pakistan.

“I think that has to be reviewed carefully. I do not think that the nuclear armed version (of F-16) should be sold. That would deform things,” Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the US House of Representatives, told Indian-Americans on the occasion of launch of Republican Hindu Coalition.

“Let’s be clear, there is a direct tie between what happened in Paris and what happened several years ago in Paris. There is a common enemy, there is a common threat. And it is only suitable that the world’s largest democracy in numbers and world’s largest democracy in military power should be natural allies, fighting on behalf of civilisation,” the powerful Republican leader said.

Gingrich said it is Very important that the US does not accelerate any arms race in the region. “We should be very cautious. I am frankly very, very concerned about instability in the region and very, very concerned about the size of the Pakistani nuclear stockpile. We now live in a very dangerous world,” he said.