less than 10 days after issuing Pakistan a stern warning over its “safe havens” for terrorists, the Trump administration has notified Congress that it is providing Islamabad $255 million in military assistance, but subject to the condition that it would go the whole hog against terror networks.
The Trump administration informed Congress on Wednesday that the money would go into the equivalent of an escrow account that Islamabad could access only if it ramped up action against the terror networks targeting Afghanistan, The New York Times reported on Thursday.
“Once Pakistan more aggressively pursues the Taliban and Haqqani network, the aid will be released – a determination to be made by Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson,” the paper quoted officials as saying. The changes are being seen as making the conditions on military aid to Pakistan explicit.
President Donald Trump’s stinging attack on August 21 charging Pakistan with “housing the very terrorists that we are fighting”, followed by Tillerson’s warning that Islamabad could lose US aid as also its status as a non-NATO ally, had sent US-Pakistan relations spiralling downwards all over again. In a hard-hitting statement while laying out his new South Asia strategy, Trump had commented: “We have been paying Pakistan billions and billions of dollars at the same time they are housing the very terrorists that we are fighting…But that will have to change, and that will change immediately.”
Apparently caught unawares by Trump’s sharp comments, Pakistan sought to retaliate by rescheduling three bilateral diplomatic exchanges, including a projected visit by Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif to Washington and a visit by Acting Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Alice Wells to Islamabad this week.
The United States, according to the Times report, has provided Pakistan more than $33 billion in aid since 2002. But the annual funding has declined in recent years in line with Washington’s growing disenchantment with Islamabad’s support for the Haqqani network and the Taliban that have targeted US forces in Afghanistan.
The $255 million now being cleared with conditions is a part of the overall $1.1 billion aid authorized by Congress in 2016 for Pakistan.
The Pentagon, meanwhile, has put the number of US troops currently stationed in Afghanistan at 11,000. “This does not include any potential future adjustments the secretary of defence may make in order to accomplish the president’s new strategy for South Asia,” according to Joint Staff Director lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie.
Back in November 2016, the predecessor Obama administration had authorized a force level of 8,400 troops. While laying out his Afghan strategy as part of his overall South Asia policy, Trump declined to spell out the additional troops that he planned to deploy in the war-torn nation.