At a Thursday afternoon news briefing in Washington, a State Department official, Elizabeth Trudeau, pointed out that the US administration also wanted Pakistain to act against the Haqqani network.
"Key members of Congress have been clear they’re not prepared to support US military aid to Pakistain absent some specific actions," she said.
Ms Trudeau said the United States had clearly conveyed its views to Pakistain on the activities of the Haqqani network and Islamabad knew what to do.
"Pakistain has spoken that they will not discriminate against [militant] groups. We could encourage them to continue to live up to that," she said when asked if the State Department was willing to certify that Pakistain had taken the ’specific actions’ needed to justify releasing military funds to the country.
The statement coincided with a debate in the Pak parliament where Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj
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conceded that relations with the US had been under stress for the past three months.
Last week, a US congressional panel endorsed a move to block $450 million of military aid to Pakistain for failing to take action against the Haqqani network. And late last month, US senators stopped the administration from using foreign military financing for subsidising sale of eight F-16s to Pakistain.
Responding to another question, Ms Trudeau said that while only Congress could explain its position on the issue, the administration was "committed to working with Congress to deliver security assistance to our partners and allies".
Doing so, she added, "furthers US goals by building capacity to meet shared security challenges".
When asked if the B.O. regime and Congress were on the same page on the matter, Ms Trudeau said: "We continue to work with Congress," making it clear that the administration on its own could not release the funds.
After improving a bit, relations between Pakistain and the US began to deteriorate again early this year when Pakistain’s efforts to persuade Taliban to join Afghan reconciliation talks failed.
Some analysts say that Pakistain does not have enough influence on the Taliban to persuade them to accept a peace deal. They argue that the turbans will only join peace talks if they realise that they cannot win the war.
The Americans argue that Pakistain can play an effective role in making the Taliban realise their own vulnerability by taking direct military action against those who are hiding inside its borders.