We don’t have any alliance with US now: Khawaja Asif

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s alliance with the United States seems to be coming towards an end following the latter’s decision to suspend security aid, Foreign Affairs Minister Khawaja Asif told Wall Street Journal (WSJ) in an interview late Saturday night.

Asif said he believes the US-Pakistan relations are now at risk, especially after the tensions heightened and moods turned sour when President Donald Trump warned Islamabad to “do more” against terrorists, to whom, he alleged, the country provides safe havens.

“We do not have any alliance [with the US], this is not how allies behave,” the minister told WSJ.

On Friday, the US announced it was suspending aid worth $255 million as well as the transfer of military equipment and security-related funds to Islamabad.

Foreign Minister Asif said that the nation had erred when it became a party in the 2001 US campaign against Afghanistan, calling it a “huge mistake”.

That decision, more than a decade ago, brought about the terrorist counteraction that seeped into Pakistan, creating a problem way bigger than could have been anticipated.

According to the WSJ, a senior official in the Trump administration said the American leadership is “angry and dissatisfied” with how Pakistan has replied as well as “the continued linkages we see between the Pakistan security services and the Haqqani network”.

Asif, who told the publication that the US “had turned Pakistan into a ‘whipping boy’ for its failures in Afghanistan”, said the situation in the country is relatively calm at present.

Asif added that Pakistan has allies in China, Iran, Russia, and Turkey and is, therefore, “not alone”.

However, “if we go against [Afghan insurgents], then the war will again be fought on our soil, which will suit the Americans.”