After Donald Trump’s snub, Pakistan cites US ‘failures’ in Afghanistan, summons envoy
Donald Trump’s first tweet of 2018 also brought a quick and pointed rejoinder from Pakistan, which said it had done much for the United States, helping it to “decimate” al Qaeda.
world Updated: Jan 02, 2018 08:23 IST
Pakistani leaders stressed US failures in Afghanistan and accused Washington of giving “mistrust” in return for its help, reacting sharply to President Donald Trump’s tweet that threatened to cut off all aid to Islamabad over inaction in cracking down on terrorists.
Soon after Trump targeted Pakistan for its “lies and deceit”, the Pakistan Foreign Office summoned US ambassador David Hale and lodged a protest, reports said. Sources said foreign secretary Tehmina Janjua sought an explanation from ambassador Hale.
Trump’s first tweet of 2018 also brought a quick and pointed rejoinder from Pakistan, which said it had done much for the United States, helping it to “decimate” al Qaeda.
US-Pakistani ties, long contentious, have taken a nosedive under Trump, who in August declared that “Pakistan often gives safe haven to agents of chaos, violence and terror”.
It was not immediately clear what prompted Trump’s fresh criticism of Pakistan but he has long complained that Islamabad is not doing enough to tackle Islamist militants. The US maintains that Pakistan must stop offering cross-border havens to Taliban factions operating in Afghanistan as well as armed jihadist groups fighting US troops and their Afghan allies.
Hamdullah Mohib, Afghanistan’s ambassador in Washington, said in a Twitter posting 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”.
Last month, Trump had already hinted that he could cut off the aid. Recent reports had said that the Trump administration was weighing whether to withhold $255 million in already delayed aid to Islamabad over its failure to crack down more effectively on terror groups in Pakistan.
Pakistani foreign minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif responded angrily, telling Geo television in an Urdu-language interview: “The United States should hold its own people accountable for its failures in Afghanistan.”
He said all funds from the US had been “properly audited” and that “services (were) rendered.”
And defense minister Khurram Dastgir Khan tweeted that Pakistan “as anti-terror ally has given free to US: land & air communication, military bases & intel cooperation that decimated Al-Qaeda over last 16yrs, but they have given us nothing but invective & mistrust.”
Islamabad has repeatedly denied the accusations of turning a blind eye to militancy, lambasting the United States for ignoring the thousands who have been killed on its soil and the billions spent fighting extremists.
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.