Pakistan slams U.S. military aid move
Suspension of $1B in assistance is called betrayal.
Pakistani officials ISLAMABAD — Friday denounced the Trump administration’s decision to suspend military aid, decrying what they called “arbitrary deadlines” and “unilateral pronouncements,” while members of the opposition called for retaliation.
In one of the harshest actions in years between the troubled allies, the Trump administration moved Thursday to block an estimated $1 billion in military assistance at the end of a week that began with the president accusing the Pakistanis of years of “lies & deceit.”
State Department officials said they are holding back the aid as an incentive for Pakistan to take “decisive action” to rid its lands of terrorist safe havens. It also placed the country on a watch list of nations failing to protect religious freedom.
“Working toward enduring peace requires mutual respect and trust along with patience and persistence,” Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “Arbitrary deadlines, unilateral pronouncements and shifting goal posts are counterproductive in addressing common threats.”
In an interview Thursday with the Geo News channel, Foreign Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif said that the United States was now neither a friend nor ally, but “a friend who always betrays.”
Pakistan’s opposition, meanwhile, called for concrete actions to retaliate.
Opposition leader Imran Khan said Pakistan should “delink” itself from the United States after its humiliation “by an ungrateful Donald Trump.” Khan has called for Pakistan to expel some U.S. diplomatic personnel and cut off supply routes for the U.S.-led coalition forces from the port city of Karachi to landlocked Afghanistan, as well as close its airspace to U.S. forces.
Analysts fear the escalating tension could have a long-standing impact on regional security and the United States’ ongoing efforts in Afghanistan, where troop levels now stand at 14,000.
“There is little doubt that both are on a collision course and their bilateral relationship is set for a very rough ride, if back channel efforts are not made to address the U.S. concerns,” said Vinay Kaura, an Indian security analyst.
The Trump administration’s move came after what a senior State Department official called “numerous conversations” with the Pakistanis over several months, along with visits by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. The United States has repeatedly pressed the Pakistanis to do something about Taliban and Haqqani network militants operating inside Pakistan that launch attacks against coalition forces in Afghanistan, officials said.