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Pakistan summons US ambassador over Trump tweet
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This file photo taken on December 7, 2017 shows US President Donald Trump speaking during a Hanukkah reception in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC. A top US newspaper on December 13, 2017 blasted President Donald Trump with a withering editorial, saying he was not fit to even (AFP/Saul Loeb)
P
akistan has summoned the US ambassador, an embassy spokesman said Tuesday, a rare public rebuke after Donald Trump lashed out at Islamabad with threats to cut aid over "lies" about militancy.
Ambassador David Hale was asked to go to the foreign office in the Pakistani capital on Monday night, after Islamabad responded angrily to the US President's allegations that it provided safe havens for militants in the latest spat to rock their alliance.
A US embassy spokesman confirmed Hale met officials, but added: "We don't have any comment on the substance of the meeting."
There was no immediate response from foreign office officials.
Trump used his first tweet of 2018 to tear into Islamabad.
"The 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," Trump said in the early-morning New Year's Day tweet.
"They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!"
The 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. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 1, 2018
Pakistan hit back swiftly, saying it had done much for the United States, helping it to "decimate" Al-Qaeda, while getting only "invective & mistrust" in return in angry comments from its foreign and defence ministers.
Islamabad has repeatedly denied the accusations of turning a blind eye to militancy, lambasting the United States for ignoring the thousands who have been killed on its soil and the billions spent fighting extremists.
After the September 11, 2001 terror attacks in the United States, Washington forged a strategic alliance with Islamabad to help in its fight against militancy.
But US leaders have often complained that Pakistan, long accused by Washington and Kabul of supporting the Taliban, has done too little to help.
Of foremost concern is Islamabad's attitude toward the powerful Haqqani network, whose leader Sirajuddin Haqqani is the deputy leader of the Afghan Taliban.
The group is accused of some of the most lethal attacks on US forces in Afghanistan, and was dubbed by America's former top military officer Mike Mullen as a "veritable arm" of Pakistani intelligence.
