WASHINGTON - Pakistan, China and Saudi Arabia are among countries added to a US blacklist of nations that violate religious freedom, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday.
Pompeo said he has designated Pakistan, China, Saudi Arabia, Myanmar, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan as “countries of particular concern” in a congressionally mandated annual report.
The development comes a year after the US State Department put Pakistan on a watchlist without legal consequences.
Pompeo said in a statement he added Pakistan to the US list regarding protection for people to worship according to their beliefs. The downgrade means that Pakistan could be hit with US sanctions although such penalties have generally been waived in the past.
Other countries on the blacklist, which calls out nations for “systematic, ongoing and egregious violations of religious freedom,” are China, Eritrea, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. All had been so designated in last year’s list. Uzbekistan had previously been named a “country of particular concern,” but Pompeo upgraded it to the special watch list. The watch list now also includes the Comoros Islands and Russia.
In addition, Pompeo designated several Islamic militant groups as “entities of particular concern” as they do not meet the definition of countries. Those are the al-Nusra front in Syria, the Yemen-based al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, al-Qaida, Somalia’s al-Shabab, Boko Haram in West Africa, Yemen’s Houthi rebels, the Islamic State and the Taliban.
“In far too many places across the globe, individuals continue to face harassment, arrests, or even death for simply living their lives in accordance with their beliefs,” Pompeo said. “The United States will not stand by as spectators in the face of such oppression.”