Pakistan-U.S. ties hit new low as Pentagon suspends $1.66 bn security aid to Islamabad

Syed Zafar Mehdi

TEHRAN - The relations between former allies United States and Pakistan continue to nosedive with many skeletons tumbling out of the cupboard. Barely two days after U.S. President Donald Trump launched a vicious tirade against Pakistan for 'not doing a damn thing' for his country, which evoked angry reactions in Pakistan, his administration suspended the $1.66 billion security assistance to Islamabad on Wednesday.

“USD 1.66 billion of security assistance to Pakistan is suspended,” Col Rob Manning, spokesman of the U.S. Department of Defense, was quoted saying in media. With this announcement, the already fractured ties between the two countries are likely to get worse, fear experts.

On November 19, in an interview with Fox News, Trump launched a no-holds-barred attack on Pakistan for not doing enough to dismantle terror pads on its soil. He referred to the killing of former al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden in the garrison city of Abbottabad, alleging that Pakistan did not provide them information about it.

Trump later took to Twitter to claim in his characteristic hyperbolic manner that Pakistan never told the U.S. that Osama was hiding there. “Of course we should have captured Osama Bin Laden long before we did. I pointed him out in my book just BEFORE the attack on the World Trade Center. President Clinton famously missed his shot. We paid Pakistan Billions of Dollars & they never told us he was living there. Fools!”

Trump said Pakistan was just another country which took money from the U.S. and did nothing. “We no longer pay Pakistan the $Billions because they would take our money and do nothing for us, Bin Laden being a prime example, Afghanistan being another. They were just one of many countries that take from the United States without giving anything in return. That’s ENDING!” he tweeted.

Rebutting his claim, Pakistan's Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua said it was Pakistan's intelligence that provided the initial evidence to trace the whereabouts of Osama.
She summoned the U.S. Chargé d’Affaires Paul Jones to the Foreign Office on Tuesday and registered a strong protest on what she termed were “unwarranted and unsubstantiated” allegations against Pakistan by Trump.

“Conveying her government’s disappointment on the recent tweets and comments by the U.S. president, the U.S. CdA was told that such baseless rhetoric about Pakistan was totally unacceptable,” the office of the foreign secretary said in a statement.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, who is known for his strong stance against U.S. policies, reacted sharply to Trump, saying that few allies have sacrificed or helped the U.S. as much as Pakistan in its war on terror.

“Instead of making Pakistan a scapegoat for their failures, the US should do a serious assessment of why, despite 1,40,000 NATO troops plus 250,000 Afghan troops & reportedly $1 trillion spent on the war in Afghanistan, the Taliban today are stronger than before,” Khan tweeted.

The Pakistan PM further said the country had borne the brunt of the U.S.’ war on terror. “No Pakistani was involved in 9/11 but Pakistan decided to participate in U.S. war on terror. Pakistan suffered 75,000 casualties in this war and over $123 bn was lost to the economy,” he said.

Earlier Shireen Mazari, the firebrand Pakistani minister, had locked horns with Trump on Twitter, lambasting him for his remarks and saying that the policy of appeasement doesn't work with the U.S. She termed it as a lesson for Pakistani politicians.

The tension between the two nations gained momentum in August last year when Trump while announcing his Afghanistan and South Asia policy, lashed out at Pakistan for providing safe havens to “agents of chaos".

In September, the U.S. said it would cancel $300 million in military aid to Pakistan over its inaction to crackdown against terrorists, which was in addition to another $500 million aid that was withdrawn earlier this year at the behest of the U.S. Congress.

Pakistan’s Ties With U.S. At a Crossroads

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. military plans to cancel $300 million in aid to Pakistan due to Islamabad's lack of "decisive actions" in support of American strategy in the region, the Pentagon said Sunday.

The U.S. announced a freeze on aid at the beginning of the year that an official said could be worth almost $2 billion.

The Pentagon has sought to cut aid by $300 million "due to a lack of Pakistani decisive actions in support of the South Asia Strategy," Lt. Col. Kone Faulkner said in an email to AFP.

Faulkner said the latest aid cut request was pending Congressional approval.

The announcement came days before U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is scheduled to visit Islamabad to meet new Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Pakistan has fought fierce campaigns against homegrown militant groups, and says it has lost thousands of lives and spent billions of dollars in its long war on extremism.

But U.S. officials accuse Islamabad of ignoring or even collaborating with groups, which they say attack Afghanistan from safe havens along the border between the two countries.

The White House alleges that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency and other military bodies have long helped fund and arm the Taliban for ideological reasons, but also to counter rising Indian influence in Afghanistan.

It says a Pakistani crackdown could be pivotal in deciding the outcome of the long-running war in Afghanistan.

President Donald Trump's predecessor Barack Obama authorized drone strikes in Pakistan and sent U.S. commandos to kill Al-Qaeda kingpin Osama bin Laden in his Abbottabad hideout.

But Trump's aggressive language has especially angered Pakistani officials.

"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," Trump wrote on Twitter at the beginning of the year.

"They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!"

Pakistani leaders disputed the $33 billion figure, insisting that around half of the money relates to reimbursements, and the prime minister's office accused Trump of ignoring the great sacrifices the country has made to fight extremism.

In March, a senior U.S. official said that Pakistan has "done the bare minimum to appear responsive to our requests," and concerns over a lack of action by Islamabad against militant groups still persist.

The announcement came weeks after Pakistan's new Prime Minister Imran Khan took office. 

Khan has repeatedly blamed Pakistan's participation in the U.S. "anti-terror campaign” for the surge in terrorism on home soil over the last decade and has vowed to rebalance Islamabad's relationship with Washington.

He has also shown a willingness to hold talks with militant groups and sought support from religious figures in the run-up to elections last July.

Some analysts warn there may be no real way to pressure Islamabad and say a suspension in aid could see the U.S. lose crucial influence over Pakistan which will instead look to other countries for support, particularly its longtime ally China.

Despite the provocations, the U.S. does not want to completely rupture its relationship with Pakistan, where anti-American sentiment already runs high.

Washington's footprint in Afghanistan is much smaller than it was at the height of the war, but it needs access to Pakistan's supply lines and airspace.

Pakistan is still believed to have the strongest influence over the Taliban, making its cooperation necessary for peace talks.