The US military is seeking to reallocate $300 million in aid to Pakistan due to Islamabad\u2019s lack of \u201cdecisive actions\u201d in support of regional American strategy, the Pentagon said Saturday.<\/p>\n
The US has been pushing Pakistan to crack down on militant safe havens in the country, and announced a freeze on aid at the beginning of the year that an official said could be worth almost $2 billion.<\/p>\n
\u201cDue to a lack of Pakistani decisive actions in support of the South Asia Strategy… $300M (actually $323.6M to include non-Pakistan funds) was reprogrammed by (the Defense Department) in the June\/July 2018 time frame for other urgent priorities,\u201d Lieutenant Colonel Kone Faulkner said in an email to AFP.<\/p>\n
The Defense Department \u201cis awaiting congressional determination on whether this reprogramming request will be approved or denied,\u201d Faulkner said.<\/p>\n
Pakistan has fought fierce campaigns against homegrown militant groups, and says it has lost thousands of lives and spent billions of dollars in its long war on extremism.<\/p>\n
But US officials accuse Islamabad of ignoring or even collaborating with groups that attack Afghanistan from safe havens along the border between the two countries.<\/p>\n
The White House believes that Pakistan\u2019s Inter-Services Intelligence agency and other military bodies have long helped fund and arm the Taliban for ideological reasons, but also to counter rising Indian influence in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
It also believes that a Pakistani crackdown could be pivotal in deciding the outcome of the long-running war in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
US frustration has boiled over before: President Donald Trump\u2019s predecessor Barack Obama authorized drone strikes on Pakistani safe havens and sent US commandos to kill jihadist kingpin Osama bin Laden in his Abbottabad hideout.<\/p>\n
But Trump\u2019s aggressive language has especially angered Pakistani officials.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 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 & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools,\u201d Trump wrote on Twitter at the beginning of the year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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