Pakistan FM: Trump’s ‘no more’ holds no importance

US President Donald Trump said on Monday that the United States has “foolishly” handed Pakistan more than $33 billion in aid over the last 15 years while getting nothing in return and pledged to put a stop to it.

“They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!” Trump wrote on Twitter. “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,” Reuters reported.

It was not immediately clear what prompted Trump’s criticism of Pakistan but he has long complained that Islamabad is not doing enough to tackle extremists.

Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif, in response to Trump, said that Pakistan has already refused to ‘do more’ for the United States. “We have already told the US that we will not do more, so Trump’s ‘no more’ does not hold any importance,” Asif said in an interview with Geo News.

“Pakistan is ready to publicly provide every detail of the US aid that it has received,” Asif said in a strongly-worded statement.

“Trump is disappointed at the US defeat in Afghanistan and that is the only reason he is flinging accusations at Pakistan,” the foreign minister said. The New York Times reported on Dec. 29 that the Trump administration was “strongly considering” whether to withhold $255 million in aid to Pakistan.

It said US officials had sought but been denied access to a member of the Taliban-linked Haqqani network captured in Pakistan who potentially could provide information about at least one American hostage.

The Trump administration said in August that it was delaying sending the $255 million in aid to Pakistan. Last month, Trump said in a speech the US government makes “massive payments every year to Pakistan. They have to help.”

Pakistan counters that it has launched military operations to push out militants from its soil and that 17,000 Pakistanis have died fighting militants or in bombings and other attacks since 2001. The top US general in Afghanistan, John Nicholson, said in November that he had not seen a change in Pakistan’s behavior toward militants, despite the Trump administration’s tougher line against Islamabad. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un warned the United States Monday he has a “nuclear button” on his table but offered an apparent olive branch to South Korea in a New Year message, saying he was prepared for talks and may send a team to the Winter Olympics there.

Kim struck a generally defiant note after a year of rising tensions marked by the North’s multiple missile launches and its sixth and most powerful nuclear test – purportedly of a hydrogen bomb, AFP wrote.

“We must mass-produce nuclear warheads and ballistic missiles and speed up their deployment,” he said in his annual televised address to the nation.

He reiterated his claim that his country had achieved its goal of becoming a nuclear state but insisted the expansion of the weapons program was a defensive measure.

“We should always keep readiness to take immediate nuclear counterattacks against the enemy’s scheme for a nuclear war.”

The North says it needs nuclear weapons to protect itself from a hostile Washington and has striven to create a warhead capable of targeting the US mainland with an atomic warhead.

US President Donald Trump has responded to each test with his own amplified declarations, threatening to “totally destroy” Pyongyang and taunting Kim, saying he was on “a suicide mission”.

“(The North) can cope with any kind of nuclear threats from the US and has a strong nuclear deterrence that is able to prevent the US from playing with fire,” Kim said Monday.

“The nuclear button is always on my table. The US must realize this is not blackmail but reality.”

When asked for a response to Kim’s claim that he had a nuclear button on his desk, Trump said “we’ll see, we’ll see”, in comments to reporters during the New Year’s Eve party in Florida.

Kim also sugared his speech Monday with a conciliatory tone toward Seoul, indicating for the first time that the North is considering taking part in the South’s Winter Olympics next month.

“(The Olympics) will serve as a good chance to display our Korean people’s grace toward the world and we sincerely hope the Games will be a success,” he said.

The North and the South should “depart from the past, improve relations and take decisive measures to make a breakthrough in efforts to achieve reunification”, he said.

South Korea’s presidential Blue House welcomed the dialogue offer.

“Should the Olympics be staged successfully, it will contribute to peace not only on the Korean Peninsula but in the region and the world as well,” it said in a statement.

In December the United Nations Security Council unanimously passed new, Us-drafted sanctions against Pyongyang, restricting oil supplies vital for the impoverished state.

The most recent set of sanctions, which the North slammed as an “act of war”, also received the backing of China – the country’s sole major ally and economic lifeline.

Observers say Washington must open talks with the North to defuse tensions but that remains a challenge.

Pyongyang has always said it will only deal with the US from a position of equality as a nuclear state. Washington has long insisted that it will not accept a nuclear-armed North.