Washington
\nA fresh row has erupted between the US and Pakistan with Islamabad taking exception to a State Department\u2019 statement that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo discussed the issue of terrorism with newly-elected Prime Minister Imran Khan while Washington stands by its version.<\/p>\n
Pompeo yesterday spoke to Khan for the first time after the cricketer-turned-politician assumed office last week and sought \u201cdecisive action\u201d against all terrorists operating in Pakistan, the US State Department said.<\/p>\n
Soon after the State Department\u2019s statement, Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Faisal said that \u201cPakistan takes exception to the factually incorrect statement issued by the US State Department on today\u2019s phone call between Prime Minister Khan and Secretary Pompeo\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was no mention at all in the conversation about terrorists operating in Pakistan. This should be immediately corrected,\u201d.<\/p>\n
The US has long been frustrated with Pakistan\u2019s overt and covert support to the Afghan Taliban and other terror groups, forcing the Trump administration to warn Islamabad and slash military aid to the country.<\/p>\n
State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert said yesterday in a statement that Pompeo, in his talks with Khan, discussed the issue of terrorism and Pakistan\u2019s vital role in promoting the peace process in war-torn Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
\u201cSecretary Michael R Pompeo spoke today with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and wished him success. Secretary Pompeo expressed his willingness to work with the new government towards a productive bilateral relationship,\u201d she said in the statement.<\/p>\n
Nauert today said Pompeo\u2019s telephonic discussion with Khan was good and the US stands by its earlier statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the readout, the secretary notes that he spoke with the new prime minister and expressed his willingness to work with the new government toward a productive bilateral relationship. They had a good call,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat may surprise some of you, but they had a good call. Pakistan is an important partner to the United States. We hope to forge a good, productive working relationship with the new civilian government,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She went on to say that based on her understanding, \u201cthe beginning of the call or the call itself was a good call, and a good discussion toward our working with the new government and the new administration\u201d.<\/p>\n
When asked again by a reporter if the US government continues to stand by the readout, she said: \u201cWe stand by our readout.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Pakistani media this week reported that Pompeo is likely to visit Islamabad in the first week of September to hold talks with newly-elected Prime Minister Khan.<\/p>\n
Pompeo, who is expected in Islamabad on September 5, would be the first foreign dignitary to meet Khan, Dawn reported, quoting the diplomatic and official sources.<\/p>\n
The relations between Pakistan and the US nose-dived after President Donald Trump in January accused Islamabad of giving nothing to Washington but \u201clies and deceit\u201d and providing \u201csafe haven\u201d to terrorists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Washington A fresh row has erupted between the US and Pakistan with Islamabad taking exception to a State Department\u2019 statement that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo discussed the issue of terrorism with newly-elected Prime Minister Imran Khan while Washington stands by its version. Pompeo yesterday spoke to Khan for the first time after the cricketer-turned-politician […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40167,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40166"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40168,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40166\/revisions\/40168"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}