We don't have any alliance with US, says Pakistan after aid freeze

Pakistan's foreign minister had described Washington in a TV interview the previous day as 'a friend who always betrays'

Pakistan on Friday said it was being treated like a “whipping boy”, after Washington suspended $1.15 billion in security aid and the delivery of military equipment to it for failing to clamp down on the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Network terror groups and dismantle their safe havens.
 

“We do not have any alliance” with the US, said Khawaja Asif, Pakistan’s foreign minister, in an interview with Geo TV on Friday. 

“This is not how allies behave.” Asif had described Washington in a TV interview the previous day as “a friend who always betrays”. The freezing of all security assistance to Pakistan comes after President Donald Trump in a New Year's Day tweet accused the country of giving nothing to the US but "lies and deceit" and providing "safe haven" to terrorists in return for $33-billion aid over the last 15 years. The suspended amount also include $255 million in Foreign Military Funding (FMF) for the fiscal year 2016 as mandated by the Congress.  In addition, the Department of Defense has suspended the entire $900 million of the Coalition Support Funds (CSF) money to Pakistan for the fiscal year 2017 and other unspent money from  previous fiscal years. 

"Today we can confirm that we are suspending national security assistance only, to Pakistan at this time until the Pakistani government takes decisive action against groups, including the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Network," State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert told reporters. 

"We consider them (terror groups) to be destabilising the region and also targeting US personnel. The US will suspend that kind of security assistance to Pakistan."

The US, she said, will not be delivering military equipment or transfer security-related funds to Pakistan unless it is required by law.

“Today we can confirm that we are suspending national security assistance only, to Pakistan at this time until the Pakistani government takes decisive action against groups, including the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Network," State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert told reporters. "We consider them (terror groups) to be destabilising the region and also targeting US personnel. The US will suspend that kind of security assistance to Pakistan.”

The US, she said, will not be delivering military equipment or transfer security-related funds to Pakistan unless it is required by law. Reacting to the Trump administration's move, Pakistan had said said, "We are engaged with the US Administration on the issue of security cooperation and await further details." "Arbitrary deadlines, unilateral pronouncements and shifting goalposts are counterproductive in addressing common threats," the Foreign Office said in a statement in Islamabad.

It said that Pakistan believed that its cooperation with US in fighting terrorism directly served US national security interests as well as the larger interests of the international community.

Historically, the US has provided Pakistan over $1 billion in security assistance annually.