US President Donald Trump has lashed out at
Pakistan in his first tweet of the year.
Trump
“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 and deceit, thinking of our leaders as
fools,” the early morning tweet said.
“They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt
in Afghanistan, with little help. No more.”
In response, Pakistani Foreign Minister Khawaja
Asif tweeted: “We will respond to President
Trump’s tweet shortly inshallah… Will let the
world know the truth…difference between facts
& fiction.”
#DonaldTrump became a top Twitter trend in
Pakistan in no time and thousands of people
responded the tweet.
“Some hungover guy working the Pakistan desk
at the State Department is having a rough start
to 2018,” tweeted Jonah Goldberg, a US-based
author and columnist.
The US and Afghanistan accuse Pakistan of
providing sanctuaries to Afghan Taliban and
the Haqqani terror network. Pakistan rejects
the allegations and insists that it has done
enough in the fight against terrorism.
President Trump’s remarks suggest that recent
diplomatic efforts to find common ground on
Pakistan’s role in the region and peace in
Afghanistan could fail.
Relations between the two countries have been
tense since US President Donald Trump
accused Islamabad of supporting “agents of
chaos” when introducing his new strategy for
Afghanistan in August, and demanding that
Pakistan act against the Taliban and Haqqani
network.
Relations also suffered when Pakistani
authorities ended the house arrest of Islamist
Hafiz Saeed, founder of the terrorist group
Lashkar-e Toiba (LeT), in November.
The US had declared Saeed a terrorist after a
string of deadly bombings in Mumbai in 2008
that killed more than 160 people, among them
US citizens.(dpa/NAN)
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