After the US Congress froze close to $700 million in aid to Pakistan earlier this month, the Obama administration is trying to assure its estranged ally that the legislation merely includes a reporting requirement that could be waived.

The provision is part of a giant $662 billion defence budget for fiscal 2012 passed by US Senate by 86 to 13 votes on December 15, a day after the US House of Representatives approved it by 283 to 136 votes.

The new legislation would freeze any aid to Pakistan until Secretary of State Hillary Clinton verifies Pakistan’s cooperation in the war on terror.

Cooperation between the US and Pakistan came to a halt after a fatal NATO attack on a Pakistan border post. Pakistan stopped all supplies to NATO troops in Afghanistan and told the US to leave the Shamsi air base.

“I cannot believe that the cooperation stopped because of a couple of incidents – it’s immature,” said Tim Barkin, a defense analyst who has worked in Afghanistan.

While President Barack Obama and his administration want close ties with Pakistan, the security establishment and the hawks in the administration and the Senate are pressing for tougher actions.

“There have been over 2,800 NATO causalities so far, and we have not blamed them on Pakistan,” said a senior NATO commander in Afghanistan. “What if we act like Pakistan? What would that lead to?”

Former US embassy military spokesman Col Michael Shivers said Pakistan received $3.5 billion in economic assistance from the United States over 15 years from 1952 to 1967. This was more than three times the combined aid provided by West Germany, Canada, Great Britain and Japan. From 2002 to 2010, the US was been the biggest donor to Pakistan with approximately $4 billion in direct aid. Its security assistance support was $462 million in fiscal year 2008, $884 million in FY 2009, and $1,114 million in FY 2010. This does not include the Coalition Support Fund (CSF), a reimbursement programme for expenses incurred by Pakistani military for its assistance to the US. CSF reimbursements since 2001 total approximately $8.88 billion.

Relations between Pakistan and the US have worsened to the extent that all US military representatives working in Pakistan, including the important Director of Strategic Communications, have been virtually stopped from working in Pakistan after the Raymond Davis case, and according to a US diplomat, “We are treated as enemy combatants in Pakistan.”

Carl Prine, a veteran journalist and military analyst, however thinks that “without Pakistan, the US won’t end up anywhere in Afghanistan.”

Making a joke about what appears to be a key factor in the worsening of the ties, he asked if it would be “better to give $10 million a month to the Haqqanis instead of wasting $120 billion a year in Afghanistan?”

Some analysts see the new US move as a response to Pakistan’s decision to stop supplies to NATO troops in Afghanistan. “Some in the US want to take on Pakistan by exerting financial pressure,” one expert said.

“The last time they closed the supplies, the US made alternate arrangements,” said diplomat Mark Author. “They are more expensive, but that’s better than being blackmailed.”