US suspends $1.66 bn aid to Pak
The US has suspended $1.66 billion in security assistance to Pakistan on President Donald Trump’s directive, the Pentagon has said.
The aid will remain suspended until the country acts against militant safe heavens inside its territory, Trump said on Tuesday.
“I want Pakistan to help us. We’re no longer paying $1.3 billion to Pakistan. We’re paying them nothing because that’s what they’ve done to help us. Nothing,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday before leaving for his private Mar-aLago resort in Florida for the Thanksgiving holidays.
The move came in the wake of sharp remarks from Trump. In an interview to Fox News aired on Sunday, he said Pakistan does not do “a damn thing” for the US. He alleged that Pakistani government helped al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden hide near its garrison city of Abbottabad.
“$1.66 billion of security assistance to Pakistan is suspended,” Col Rob Manning, spokesman of
WASHINGTON:
the department of defence, told reporters in an email response to questions on Tuesday.
No further breakdown of the suspended security assistance to Pakistan was provided.
According to David Sedney, who served as deputy assistant secretary defence for Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia during the Barack Obama administration, the blocking of military assistance to Pakistan, which began in January this year, is a strong signal of American frustration. “But so far, Pakistan has taken no serious steps to address the core US concern - that Pakistan tolerates and often encourages groups which use violence against Pakistan’s neighbours,” Sedney said.
“Pakistan’s leaders have promised cooperation, but beyond words, serious cooperation has not happened. Therefore President Trump is frustrated and so are most Americans,” he said.