Pak Doesn’t Do ‘A Damn Thing’ For US, Says Trump

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Sunday defended his administra­tion’s decision to stop hun­dreds of millions of dollars in military aid to Pakistan, saying the country does not do “a damn thing” for the US and its government had helped Al Qaeda leader Osa­ma bin Laden hide near its garrison city.

Referring to Laden and his former compound in Abbot­tabad, Pakistan, Donald Trump in an interview to Fox News said, “You know, living – think of this – living in Pakistan, beauti­fully in Pakistan in what I guess they considered a nice mansion, I don’t know, I’ve seen nicer.”

The compound was de­molished shortly after US Na­val Special Warfare Develop­ment Group forces, in a daring helicopter raid, killed Laden there in 2011.

“But living in Pakistan right next to the military acad­emy, everybody in Pakistan knew he was there,” he added.

“And we give Pakistan USD 1.3 billion a year. … (Lad­en] lived in Pakistan, we’re supporting Pakistan, we’re giv­ing them USD 1.3 billion a year — which we don’t give them anymore, by the way, I ended it because they don’t do anything for us, they don’t do a damn thing for us,” he said.

The ties between the two countries strained after Trump, while announcing his Afghanistan and South Asia policy in August last year, hit out at Pakistan for providing safe havens to “agents of chaos” that kill Americans in Afghan­istan and warned Islamabad that it has “much to lose” by harbouring terrorists.

In September, the Trump administration cancelled USD 300 million in military aid to Is­lamabad for not doing enough against terror groups active on its soil.

Trump also said that he has plans to visit Iraq and Af­ghanistan to meet American troops stationed there.

“Well, I think you will see that happen. There are things that are being planned. We don’t want to talk about it be­cause of — obviously because of security reasons and every­thing else,” he said.

Trump has been criticized by his political opponents for not visiting either Afghanistan or Iraq in the first two years of his presidency.

Trump doesn’t want to hear ‘suffering’ Khashoggi’s murder tape

US President Donald Trump says he has been fully briefed on an audio record­ing of journalist Jamal Khashog­gi’s murder but does not want to listen to it himself.

“Because it’s a suffering tape. It’s a terrible tape,” he said in an interview with Fox News Sunday. “It was very violent, very vicious and terrible.”

The CIA has reportedly con­cluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered Khashoggi’s assassination in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct 2.

But the State Department has called those reports “inaccurate”, and Trump on Saturday told re­porters that the US would release “a very full report” on the matter as early as Monday. He was inter­viewed by Fox on Friday.

Asked whether the crown prince had lied to him in de­nying any role in the killing, Trump said: “I don’t know. Who can really know? But I can say this, he’s got many people … that say he had no knowledge.”

“He told me that he had nothing to do with it. He told me that, I would say, maybe five times at different points, as re­cently as a few days ago.”

Trump acknowledged that people close to the prince “were probably involved” but added, “I want to stick with an ally that in many ways has been very good.”

Asked whether he would go along with moves in the US Con­gress to cut off US involvement in the Saudi-led war in Yemen or halt arms sales to the kingdom, Trump equivocated. “I want to see Yemen end. It takes two to tango and Iran has to end also,” he said. “I want Saudi to stop but I want Iran to stop also.”

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