Relations between the US and Pakistan sank to a new low on Tuesday with the Trump administration

Relations between the US and Pakistan sank to a new low on Tuesday with the Trump administration indicating it will be withholding $255 million in foreign military Relations between the US and Pakistan sank to a new low on Tuesday with the Trump administration indicating it will be withholding $255 million in foreign military financing, and possibly future aid for Islamabad, following the US President’s New Year’s Day smackdown of the Islamic Republic for its repeated and public display of support to terrorists and terror groups.”The president has made clear the US expects Pakistan to take decisive action against terrorists and militants on its soil, and that Pakistan’s actions in support of the South Asia strategy will ultimately determine the trajectory of our relationship, including future security assistance,” a White House national security council spokesman said. The strategy invests regional primacy on India, including giving it a key role in Afghanistan, a situation Pakistan has protested against. Trump’s 4am New Year’s Day tweet has traumatised Pakistan going by reactions from the country. Although some Pakistan shills argued it should not be taken as policy, the tweet was widely welcomed in the US and beyond, including by his son. “Great start. Why give millions to countries who would harbour our enemies?” Donald Trump Jr said.Trump tweeted Monday that the US “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. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!” “I couldn’t agree more. I’ve been fighting to end aid to Pakistan for years and will again lead the charge in the Senate. Let’s make this happen,” added Republican senator Rand Paul. Even former Afghan president Hamid Karzai joined in excoriating a country that has caused thousands of deaths in Afghanistan of Afghans, Americans, Indians and other foreigners with its backing of terror groups in the region. “@realDonaldTrump tweet on Pakistan’s duplicitous position over the past 15 years is vindication that the war on terror is not in bombing Afghan villages and homes but in the sanctuaries beyond Afghanistan. I welcome today’s clarity in President Trump’s remarks and propose a joint US-regional coalition to pressurise the Pakistan military establishment to bring peace to not just Afghanistan but the entire region,” Karzai said. Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Khwaja Asif responded immediately, saying, “The world will know the truth … the difference between fact and imagination will be known.” He said that Pakistan had told the Trump administration that he (In the fight against terrorism) “will do much more.” The External Affairs Minister said, “Pakistan is ready to make every detail of the help received from the US in the last 15 years.”On Tuesday, Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi chaired a National Security Committee (NSC) meeting, attended by the country’s Foreign, Interior and Defense Ministers, along with chiefs of staff of the army, navy and air force. In a statement following the meeting, the NSC expressed “deep disappointment” at recent US leadership comments, which it said were “completely incomprehensible as they contradicted facts manifestly, struck with great insensitivity at the trust between two nations built over generations, and negated the decades of sacrifices made by the Pakistani nation”. It said there had been close interaction with the US following Trump’s initial policy statements regarding South Asia, and that recent visits to Pakistan by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary James Mattis were “robust and forward-looking.” The NSC claimed that Pakistan’s counter-terrorism campaign had, at great financial cost, “served as a bulwark against the possible expansion of scores of terrorist organizations currently present in Afghanistan — a fact acknowledged by US authorities at the highest levels.” View image on Twitter]]>