US President Donald Trump’s inauguration kicked off a momentous and tumultuous year PHOTO: AFP
US President Donald Trump said on Monday that the US ‘foolishly’ gave aid to Pakistan over the course of 15 years but Islamabad remained deceitful by providing safe havens to ‘terrorists’ from Afghanistan.
“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 and deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!,” Trump said in a late-night tweet.
Last week, the Pakistan Army while rejecting the Trump administration’s pressure to do more in the fight against terrorism, insisted that Pakistan had done enough and could not do more for anyone.
In what appears to be a policy decision, the unusually candid statement – coming from Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor, the chief military spokesperson – suggested that Pakistan would not accept any further US demands – something that can potentially unravel ties between Islamabad and Washington.
In recent weeks, senior Trump administration officials have repeatedly called on Pakistan to demonstrate that it was sincere in tackling the problem of terrorism.
