WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said on Monday that the United States has ‘foolishly’ handed Pakistan more than $33 billion in aid over the last 15 years while getting nothing in return and pledged to put a stop to it.
“They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!” Trump wrote on Twitter. “The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools.”
It was not immediately clear what prompted Trump’s criticism of Pakistan but he has long complained that Islamabad is not doing enough to tackle Islamist militants.
The New York Times reported on Dec 29 that the Trump administration was ‘strongly considering’ whether to withhold $255 million in aid to Pakistan.
It said US officials had sought but been denied access to a member of the Taliban-linked Haqqani network captured in Pakistan who potentially could provide information about at least one American hostage.
Pakistan’s foreign minister, Khawaja M. Asif, wrote on Twitter, “We will respond to President Trump’s tweet shortly inshallah…Will let the world know the truth..difference between facts & fiction.”
The Trump administration said in August that it was delaying sending the $255 million in aid to Pakistan. Last month, Trump said in a speech the US government makes “massive payments every year to Pakistan. They have to help.”
Pakistan counters that it has launched military operations to push out militants from its soil and that 17,000 Pakistanis have died fighting militants or in bombings and other attacks since 2001. The top US general in Afghanistan, John Nicholson, said in November that he had not seen a change in Pakistan’s behaviour toward militants, despite the Trump administration’s tougher line against Islamabad.
In a speech last month in Afghanistan to US troops, Vice President Mike Pence said “for too long Pakistan has provided safe haven to the Taliban and many terrorist organizations, but those days are over. President Trump has put Pakistan on notice.”
Hamdullah Mohib, Afghanistan’s ambassador in Washington, said in a Twitter posting on Monday that Trump’s tweet was a “promising message to Afghans who have suffered at the hands of terrorists based in Pakistan for far too long.”
The Pakistan embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.
Pakistan Army spokesman Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor had at a press conference last week asserted that the aid Pakistan received from the US was “reimbursement for support we gave to the coalition for its fight against Al Qaeda.”
“Had we not supported the US and Afghanistan, they would never have been able to defeat Al Qaeda,” he had said.
“The armed forces are working with friends and want to continue doing so, but there can be no compromise on our national honour. We do not want a conflict with our friends, but will ensure the security of Pakistan,” he had added.
His briefing was considered perhaps the strongest-ever reaction from Islamabad since US functionaries began alluding to the possibility of unilateral action.
Hitting back at the US, the civilian-controlled Foreign Office (FO) had also warned against the ‘malicious campaign’ being ‘used to trivialise Pakistan’s achievements in the war against terrorism’, and noted that ‘allies do not put each other on notice’.
The FO had further complained that recent US statements are “at variance with the extensive conversations we [Islamabad] have had with the US administration”.
On Iran, Trump seemed to be responding to widespread anti-government protests there. He tweeted Monday that Iran is ‘failing at every level’ and voiced support for the protesters, saying it is “TIME FOR CHANGE.”
Published in Daily Times, January 2nd 2018.
