A senior White House official on Thursday said nuclear-armed Pakistan is developing long-range ballistic missile capabilities that eventually could allow it to strike targets well beyond South Asia, making it an "emerging threat" to the United States.

There was no immediate official reaction to the latest claims by the US official. However, privately officials strongly dismissed the US concerns as "absurd". One official explained that Pakistan's nuclear and missile programs were only aimed at thwarting India.

Principal Deputy Spokesperson of the US Department of State, Vedant Patel on Thursday (local time) said that the US is committed to maintaining the global nonproliferation regime. Patel was commenting on Pakistan's criticism of US's latest sanctions on the former.

Islamabad’s conduct raises questions about the aims of its ballistic missile programme, said a US official. Read more at straitstimes.com.

The United States has imposed sanctions targeting four Pakistani firms accused of being involved in Islamabad's ballistic missile program as the Biden administration targets proliferators of weapons of mass destruction.

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry warned in a statement that the sanctions “have dangerous implications for strategic stability of our region and beyond.”

Washington on Wednesday announced the restrictions that aim to target 'proliferators of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery'

Pakistan became one of the few countries to openly possess nuclear weapons in 1998, more than two decades after India. It has refused to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty, a global agreement to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology.