White House raps Pakistan over terrorism
PRESIDENT TRUMP HAD ACCUSED PAKISTAN OF ACCEPTING $33 BN IN AID AND GIVING BACK ONLY “LIES AND DECEIT”
WASHINGTON: The White House has said that President Donald Trump was “not satisfied” with progress shown by Pakistan in line with the South Asia strategy he had announced last August in the context of terrorism.
This was an indication that relations between the two onetimes allies will continue to be tense and the United States will continue to press Islamabad for more decisive action on counterterrorism.
The United States has seen only “modest progress” in terms of Pakistan’s acknowledgement of “these concerns”, White House deputy press secretary Raj Shah told reporters in response to a question, but the president, he added, “is not satisfied with (the) progress”.
Shah also said that the Trump administration had brought some “clarity” to the relationship with Pakistan, a one-time ally, by holding it “accountable for its actions”.
Though the spokesman did not spell out the “concerns”, they are and have remained the same for years, traversing administrations Democratic and Republican: that Pakistan supports terrorism as a state policy, and offers shelter and safe-haven to them from which carry out attacks across the border.
In a Afghanistan-centric South Asia strategy unveiled in August, President Trump had put Pakistan on notice for its failure to act decisively against terrorists on it soil.
This message was reinforced by senior officials of his administration in their respective visits to Pakistan and meetings with their counterparts.
In a now-famous post on Twitter that rung in the New Year, President Trump accused Pakistan accepting $33 billions in aid from America and giving back in in return only “lies and deceit”.
Trump had also asked India “to help us more with Afghanistan” and said a “critical part of the South Asia strategy for America was to further develop its strategic partnership with India -- the world’s largest democracy and a key security and economic partner of the US”.
Just days later, the US announced it was suspending nearly $2 billion in security-related aid to Pakistan and set aside less money for it in the budget.
It also proposed to the Parisbased global watchdog on terrorfinancing, Financial Action Task Force, to put Pakistan on a watchlist, called the “grey list”.
The list includes countries with “weak measures to combat money laundering and terrorist financing”.
Pakistan was on that list from 2012 to 2015 and its officials fear that being put on it again would be devastating for the economy.
Shah also shed light on the US’s progress in Afghanistan, saying “we’ve made significant progress against the Islamic State, reducing their presence and eliminating hundreds of fighters”.