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US President Donald Trump slammed Pakistan on Monday, 1 January, for giving a safe haven to terrorists, adding that the country has given the US nothing but lies and deceit.
Trump took to Twitter to voice his disappointment, saying that Pakistan has taken the US leaders for fools.
He said his country has been foolish in giving the Islamic nation over $33 billion in aid in the last 15 years.
He ended his rant through his first tweet of the year with: "They (Pakistan) give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!”
Trump’s outburst against Pakistan came a few days after the New York Times reported that the US is debating whether to withhold $225 million aid to Pakistan, reflecting its dissatisfaction with the latter's reluctance to fight the war against terrorism.
Pakistan’s Reaction to Trump’s Tweet
Shortly after the US President’s tweet, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Khawaja M Asif had reportedly called upon Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, with the meeting holding a detailed review of the Trump's statement, according to Geo TV, reports PTI. The report also mentioned that the two leaders discussed the country’s foreign policy.
Asif later tweeted that the country would let the world know the “difference between facts & fiction.”
With regard to Trump’s allegations of “being foolish” in providing aid to the country, Pakistan Army spokesman, Major General Asif Ghafoor, said that the aid that Pakistan had received from the US was "reimbursement for support Islamabad gave to the coalition for its fight against Al Qaeda,” reports ANI.
Additionally, reports ANI, the Pakistan government said that the Foreign Office had also in fact warned of a “malicious campaign” being used to trivialise Pakistan's various achievements in the war against terrorism. “The foreign office said allies do not put each other on notice.”
To speak further about how Pakistan was in fact an ally of the US in terms of its anti-terrorism campaign, the Pakistan Defence Minister Khurram Dastgir Khan said:
Pakistan as anti-terror ally has given free to US: land and air communication, military bases and intel cooperation that decimated Al-Qaeda over last 16 years, but they have given us nothing but invective and mistrust. They overlook cross-border safe havens of terrorists who murder Pakistanis.Khurram Dastgir Khan, Pakistan Defence Minister, as reported by ANI
Trump’s tweet came a few hours after a Reuters report said that the Pakistan government is planning to seize control of charities and financial assets linked to Islamist leader Hafiz Saeed, who Washington has designated a terrorist. The country’s Interior Minister, Ahsan Iqbal, however, said the decision hasn’t been made under US pressure.
The US had earlier strongly condemned Pakistan’s decision to let Saeed, who was convicted for a scores of terror activities, free. In fact, in his recent South Asia Policy, Trump had called for tougher measures to be taken against Pakistan if it failed to work alongside the US in its fight against terrorism.
In turn however, Pakistan has repeatedly denied that they harbored any terrorist safe havens inside its territory. The country’s officials based in Islamabad and inside the United Nations in New York as well, have always asserted that there are no terrorist safe havens.
Recently, Washington has been critical of Islamabad’s alleged role in providing a safe haven to the terrorists.
Trump put Pakistan on notice for providing safe haven to the Taliban and other terror organisations on its soil, US Vice President Mike Pence had said during his unannounced visit to Afghanistan on 21 December.
"For too long Pakistan has provided safe haven to the Taliban and many terrorist organisations, but those days are over," Pence had told American troops at the Bagram airbase in Afghanistan.
“President Trump has put Pakistan on notice,” Pence had said, addressing about 500 troops in a hangar decorated with Christmas decorations and massive armoured vehicles.
India’s Take on Trump’s Verbal Attack on Pakistan
With the BJP reportedly has stated that Trump’s strong message against Pakistan is a result of Prime Minister Modi’s “diplomacy” reports PTI, Jitendra Singh MoS of the Prime Minister’s office said that it “vindicated India's stand as far as terror is concerned.”
We can reasonably argue that Trump administration’s decision today has abundantly vindicated India’s stand as far as terror is concerned and as far as Pakistan’s role in perpetrating terror is concerned.Jitendra Singh as reported by PTI
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