WASHINGTON �

The Trump administration has authorized the sale of unarmed surveillance drones to India, the manufacturer said Friday, as the two nations' leaders prepare for their first face-to-face meeting.

India initiated its request to buy 22 Guardian MQ-9B unmanned aircraft for maritime surveillance last year. The deal is estimated to be worth about $2 billion. The offer is still subject to congressional approval.

Modi visits this week

The green light from the administration marks a further deepening in defense ties as India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets with President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday.

Modi's two-day visit to Washington, which starts Sunday, takes place amid uncertainty over the relationship because of differences on trade and other issues.

So far in his presidency, Trump has focused on outreach to China, India's strategic rival, as he looks to Beijing to rein in North Korea. But Washington and New Delhi share concerns about China's rise as a military power.

India reportedly wants the drones for surveillance of the Indian Ocean, waters that China's navy increasingly traverses after establishing its first overseas base in the Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti. India's archrival Pakistan would also likely be opposed to the drone sale.

We are pleased that the U.S. government has cleared the way for the sale of the MQ-9B Guardian to the Indian government, Linden Blue, CEO of the manufacturer, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, said in a statement. Blue added that it would significantly enhance India's sovereign maritime domain awareness in the Indo-Pacific.

Military sales date to 2008

Since 2008, India has signed more than $15 billion in U.S. defense contracts, including for C-130J and C-17 transport aircraft, P-8I maritime patrol aircraft, Harpoon missiles and Apache and Chinook helicopters.

Ashley Tellis, an expert on South Asia at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the U.S. decision to offer the Guardian aircraft to India is significant as the U.S. has a standing policy of declining export of such advanced drones other than to allies involved in combined operations with U.S. forces.

There could still be pushback from Congress. While there is bipartisan support for closer U.S.-India security ties, some lawmakers remain wary of the export of U.S. drone technology to non-allies.

Source: Voice of America

WASHINGTON �

The U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan has stepped down.

Laurel Miller left the office Friday without a replacement being named.

The departure of the special envoy comes at the same time the U.S. is preparing to send thousands more troops to Afghanistan in its continued fight against the Taliban insurgency.

Politico, the news website, reported Friday that diplomats thought the special envoy's office was closing Friday, with its responsibilities being folded into the State Department's South and Central Asian Affairs Bureau.

Later Friday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in a statement that he had not yet made a decision about the future of the office. Tillerson has indicated he plans to reduce the number of special envoys in the State Department, which is facing potential budget cuts of up to 30 percent.

Source: Voice of America

A Pakistani army spokesman said Saturday that the military had beefed up the monitoring of Pakistan's border with Afghanistan after insurgents carried out attacks Friday on three major Pakistani cities � Quetta, Parachinar and Karachi.

Major General Asif Ghafoor said the attacks had been traced to rebel sanctuaries in Afghanistan.

In addition, the Pakistani army said it conducted counterterrorism raids overnight in Peshawar, killing three terrorists and arresting 12 suspects.

Officials in Pakistan said Saturday that the death toll from the attacks in the three Pakistani cities had risen to more than 80.

Nearly 100 people were injured in the attacks, which began in the southwestern city of Quetta, where the death toll was at 14, with 20 wounded. Senior police officers apparently were the target, with at least seven officers among the dead.

Both the Islamic State group and Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA), an offshoot of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack on Quetta.

Hours later, two bombs went off back to back in the northwestern town of Parachinar, targeting a crowded market in the semiautonomous Kurram tribal district near the Afghan border. The death toll in Parachinar was at least 67, Dr. Sabir Hussain, an official at a hospital in Parachinar, told The Associated Press.

Sajid Turi, a member of parliament from the area, told local journalists that a low-intensity blast occurred during afternoon rush hours, before a second powerful bomb exploded.

The lawmaker said he anticipated the death toll would increase. Hospital sources said more than 260 wounded people had been brought in from the scene, and more than 60 were listed in critical condition.

The population in the area where the deadly blasts occurred is predominantly Shi'ite Muslims.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the Parachinar blasts.

Later Friday evening, gunmen in the port city of Karachi attacked police officers at a roadside restaurant, killing five.

Source: Voice of America

Pakistan's claim this week that it shot down an Iranian drone that had crossed into its airspace is heating up tensions already on the rise over cross-border skirmishes and diplomatic rifts over alleged militancy, analysts say.

"This is an unfortunate situation as it will only increase the mistrust which already exists between Pakistan and Iran," Zubair Iqbal, an analyst at the Washington-based Middle East Institute, told VOA.

Both sides of the porous 900-kilometer (560-mile) Pakistan-Iran border have long been rife with drug smugglers, separatists and militant movements. The drone apparently went down Tuesday in violence-racked Balochistan, Pakistan's southwestern province, where insurgents and nationalists are active in launching attacks against government interests and neighboring countries.

"The drone was hit by the Pakistan Air Force as it was unidentified and flying around 3-4 kilometers inside Pakistani territory," Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

No comment from Tehran

The Iranian government remained quiet about the incident, although some Iranian media outlets have quoted Pakistani newspapers on the drone claim.

An anti-Iran Sunni Muslim militant group � Jaish al-Adl, or the Army of Justice � claimed responsibility for an attack in Iran last month that killed 10 Iranian border guards.

Iran responded by warning Pakistan it would hit militant hideouts inside the fellow Muslim country if it failed to curb militancy. Consequently, Iran and Pakistan formed a joint commission in May to secure borders and control militancy.

Iran also beefed up security measures along the boundary with Pakistan and frequently has used drones to monitor the region since the attack.

The "IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] Air and Space force has been using the early-generation drones to track drug traffickers and militant groups such as Jaish al-Adl on the eastern borders with Pakistan," Babak Taghvaee, a military expert based in Malta, told VOA.

Iqbal suggested the drone might have entered Pakistan by "mistake" because "there's a tension in the region, and all the countries are trying to enhance their intelligence capabilities."

Iran-India ties

Geopolitical developments in the region also have strained relations.

Iran's robust ties with India make Pakistan uncomfortable. Islamabad accuses Iran of allowing its soil to be used by Indian spy agency RAW to sponsor, recruit and arm separatists and insurgents in Balochistan and infiltrate Pakistan with Indian spies via the border with Iran.

Iran seems exasperated about Jaish al-Adl's alleged hideouts in Balochistan and about Pakistan's alleged role in promoting Sunni-Shi'ite proxy wars in the region.

The diplomatic rift seemed to widen further after Pakistan accepted a role in the 39-nation Islamic Military Alliance to Fight Terrorism initiated by Iran's regional rival, Saudi Arabia. Pakistan's former army chief, General Raheel Sharif, was named to lead the alliance, which Iran sees as a move against it.

While Pakistan has tried to remain neutral in the recent dispute between Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and even ventured into an unsuccessful effort to negotiate a settlement, the country is seen to be leaning toward Riyadh. Security analysts point out that Pakistan didn't hesitate to gun down the Iranian drone.

"Pakistan never seemed to have any issues with Iranian drones [in the past]. Gunning down an Iranian drone might be an effort to prove loyalty to Riyadh," Taghvaee said.

Source: Voice of America