Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif are to hold an emergency meeting on Tuesday over US president Donald Trump’s Monday tweet that said: “We've been fooled for 15 years, but no more.”
“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.” Trump wrote on his Twitter account, adding that: “They give safe havens to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!”
After the tweet, Pakistan’s Asif Tweeted: “We will respond to President Trump’s Tweet shortly inshallah…Will let the world know the truth…difference between facts & fiction”.
Pakistan’s Times of Islamabad reported that the meeting will be led by Abbasi.
This comes after his administration is strongly considering whether to withhold $255 million USD in aid to Pakistan as it feels Islamabad is not doing enough to counter terrorism.
Trump’s senior administration officials met last month to decide what to do about the money. American officials said a final decision could be made in the coming weeks.
The latest move comes after the US has been denied access to a member of the Taliban-linked Haqqani network who is in Pakistan’s custody.
According to the New York Times, the Haqqani member was one of the abductors who held an American and Canadian, along with their three children, hostage for five years.
US officials told the newspaper that the Americans demanded access to the man who they feel might have valuable information about the whereabouts of at least one other American hostage.
But Pakistani officials rejected the requests.
Trump has in the past threatened to withhold the aid to Pakistan as the US feels Islamabad is failing to cooperate on counterterrorism efforts.
A few months ago, Trump declared that Pakistan “gives safe havens to agents of chaos, violence and terror.”
The United States has provided Pakistan with more than $33 billion USD in aid since 2002.