David Hale. PHOTO: FILE
Although the government was tightlipped, the US embassy spokesperson confirmed to The Express Tribune that Ambassador David Hale was called to the Foreign Office where he held a meeting with a senior Pakistani official. The spokesperson, however, refused to divulge further details.
Foreign Office sources, nevertheless, said Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua lodged a strong protest with the US ambassador over Trump’s remarks.
The move came after Trump’s tweet triggered a storm in Pakistan with policymakers contemplating the likely fallout of his diatribe.
Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi called a meeting of the National Security Committee (NSC) tomorrow (Wednesday) to discuss the evolving situation after the tweet. He will also chair an emergency cabinet meeting today (Tuesday).
Pakistan summons US ambassador over Trump tweet, registers protest
Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif has already indicated the likely response from Pakistan to the Trump’s broadside.
Speaking to a private news channel, Asif strongly rejected Trump’s remarks as ‘unwarranted and baseless’ and also indicated that it could affect the country’s ties with the US coalition fighting the war in Afghanistan.
He made it clear that the government would neither take any dictation nor compromise on national interests.
“We will cooperate with the US where our interests converge. If there is no convergence, we are not under any compulsion to cooperate with the US,” Asif said while reacting to the stinging tweet by Trump on the first day of the year.
The minister insisted that Pakistan would not give in to the US pressure and repeat past mistakes.
“We have already paid a heavy price for our decisions after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and then after the 9/11 attacks,” he said, adding that Pakistan could not afford to commit another such blunder.
Delicate Pakistan-US relations
The main question for Pakistani policymakers to ponder upon is the possible punitive measures the Trump administration may resort to against the country. The options include suspending financial assistance for Pakistan.
But the foreign minister rejected such threats, saying Pakistan did not need any US aid. He asked Trump to check with his own administration where and how they spent billions of dollars in Pakistan.
When asked if the US could use its influence on international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to block economic and other assistance, Asif said Pakistan had to stand up for its dignity and sovereignty.
Another scenario Pakistan may have to deal with is unilateral US action against alleged terrorist hideouts.
A senior military official, while requesting anonymity, told The Express Tribune that Pakistan would not accept coercion. The official stressed that Trump’s threatening tweet warranted a “united front and single national narrative”.
Pak-US relations: A glimmer of hope
The official referred to a recent statement from Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General, that Pakistan would not compromise on its respect and sovereignty. The ISPR chief said during a press briefing last week that irrespective of domestic differences, the entire country was united in the face of any external threat.
Reacting to Trump’s scathing tweet, former ambassador to Washington Sherry Rehman contested his $33 billion claim, saying the Coalition Support Fund (CSF) had never been counted as aid in any accounting by Pakistan, nor could it be seen as part of assistance.
“It was compensation of expenses incurred for joint action on border,” she explained. “Other ‘aid’ we should indeed talk about, because Pakistan has never charged for Nato traffic,” the PPP leader said while referring to the key supply route to Afghanistan that Pakistan provides to US-led foreign forces.
Trump’s tweet suggests that all recent diplomatic efforts to find a common ground on the Afghan endgame all but failed.
Despite repeated US demands seeking decisive action against alleged sanctuaries of Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani network, Pakistan told the Trump administration that there was no organised infrastructure of any terrorist outfit on its soil.
It also made clear that it had already done enough and urged the US and Afghanistan to do more to bring some semblance of peace to the war-torn country.
Pakistan has always disputed Washington’s suspicions that it still provides sanctuary to the Afghan groups as part of a strategy to use them as a hedge against the growing footprint of India in Afghanistan, asserting that it has fought the war against terrorism without any discrimination.
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