Islamabad: Just hours after United States President Donald Trump accused Pakistan of doing nothing in ‘war on terrorism’ except lying and cheating them, the latter has retorted that the U.S. should not blame Pakistan for its failures in Afghanistan.
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif was first to respond on Monday. He tweeted, “We will respond to President Trump’s tweet shortly inshallah…Will let the world know the truth..difference between facts & fiction.”
Trump, in a strongly-worded tweet, said America had been ‘foolishly’ providing military aid to Pakistan for 15 years, but in return, it has only received ‘lies and deceit.’
“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. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!” Trump posted on the micro-blogging site today.
Soon, the Government of Pakistan’s Twitter handle also became active and quoting Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it stated, “allies do not put each other on notice”.
Moments later, the handle again tweeted; this time it quoted Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb.
It said, “…#UnitedStates should not put blames for its failure in #Afghanistan on Pakistan. She further said that #Pakistan has rendered unmatched sacrifices in the war against# terrorism and there is no ambiguity about it.”
Pakistan Army also joined the bandwagon against the Trump’s accusations.
Taking note of accusation that in response to 33 billion dollars in aid that had been given to Pakistan over the last 15 years, the U.S. has got nothing, army’s spokesperson Major General Asif Ghafoor tweeted that the aid the country had received from the U.S. was “reimbursement for support Islamabad gave to the coalition for its fight against Al Qaeda”.
The Trump’s scathing remarks come after a media report emerged that the United States was considering to withhold a USD 255-million aid to Islamabad due to Pakistan’s inability to destroy terror safe havens.
According to a New York Times report, the growing disagreement between the two countries and Pakistan’s inability to neutralise the terrorist networks operating from its soil was possibly affecting the decision in providing financial aid to the Islamabad.
Although the volume of annual US assistance to Pakistan stands at $1.1 billion, hundreds of millions of dollars are withheld every year under different restrictions imposed since 2011, when relations between the two countries began to deteriorate after Osama bin Laden was found in Abbottabad.
(ANI)