Washington is reducing financial assistance to Pakistan by $255 million, US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki said Tuesday, echoing US President Donald Trump's allegation that in exchange for sending Islamabad billions of dollars, Washington has received "nothing but lies and deceit."
If Pakistan does not stop providing safe haven to terrorist groups, Trump is prepared to end all funding for the country, Haley said.
"Pakistan has played a double game for years," the diplomat told reporters at UN headquarters in New York. "They work with us at times, and they also harbor the terrorists who attack our troops in Afghanistan."
"That game is not acceptable to this administration," she warned.
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," Trump tweeted January 1.
About one-third of the US Agency for International Development's funding for Pakistan in 2016, roughly $253 million of $777 million in total, is spent on the Defense Department's Foreign Military Financing Program, which helps nations procure more advanced military equipment with US taxpayer dollars. USAID also spends money on education, wind power, dam repair and maintenance and food security programs in Pakistan.
In August, Trump gave a speech blasting Pakistan for its alleged role in supporting terrorist outfits. "Today, 20 US-designated foreign terrorists organizations are active in Afghanistan and Pakistan — the highest concentration in any region in the world. For its part, Pakistan often gives safe have to agents of chaos, violence, and terror. The threat is worse because Pakistan and India are two nuclear-armed states whose tense relations threaten to spiral into conflict."
Pakistan Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif responded in October by saying that Washington shouldn't blame Pakistan for its failed war in Afghanistan, which has dragged on for 16 years. The US "is not ready to accept" the reality of their loss, the foreign minister said.
Source: Russian News Agency SputnikNews
https://sputniknews.com/us/201801021060482146-us-withholding-funding-pakistan-us/
