Washington: Republican presidential front runner Donald Trump on Friday claimed if elected he would ensure the Pakistani doctor who helped the CIA trace Osama bin Laden is freed from jail within “two minutes”.
“Yes, I do. I think I would get him out in two minutes,” Trump told Fox News in an interview when asked if he would help free Shakeel Afridi, the doctor jailed for helping the US track down al-Qaeda leader bin Laden who was killed in a covert raid by US commandos in 2011.
“I would tell them let him out and I’m sure they would let him out,” Trump said with confidence.
“Because we give a lot of aid to Pakistan. We give a lot of money to Pakistan. And frankly, they don’t have any respect for our president. But when you say they take advantage or they are no friend, nobody is a friend to us,” he said.
“They just take us like a bunch of suckers. And that’s what my speech was about to a certain extent. It was also economic in terms of economic, relative to aid and the military. But Pakistan certainly takes advantage like everybody else. Nobody is different,” Trump said.
The real estate tycoon said he would keep 10,000 troops in Afghanistan mainly because of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons.
“I would stay in Afghanistan. It’s probably the one place we should have gone in the Middle East because it’s adjacent and right next to Pakistan which has nuclear weapons. So I think you have to stay and do the best you can, not that it’s ever going to be great but I don’t think we have much of a choice,” he said.
“That’s one place, frankly, instead of going to Iraq we probably should have gone there first. I would say in Afghanistan and only, again, because of its location next to Pakistan,” Trump said.
“So you would keep the 10,000 troops there and fight a war of attrition against the Taliban? You know, Pakistan…?” Trump was asked.
“I hate doing it, I hate doing it so much. But, again, you have nuclear weapons in Pakistan so I would do it,” he said.
PTI