Asia

Pakistan Reveals Role in Bin Laden Killing for First Time Amid Rift With US

In recent days Pakistani PM Imran Khan and US President Trump have engaged in a war of words with each other over a number of issues amid the American president's accusations that Pakistan hasn’t done ‘a damn thing’ to support US efforts in fighting terrorism.
Sputnik

One of the issues that Trump criticised Islamabad for was the matter of Osama bin Laden living in Pakistan, which the US president claims the authorities in the country were allegedly aware of.

Trump's Pakistan Rhetoric ‘Couldn't Have Come At a Worse Time'
In an official Pakistani FM statement made this Tuesday (20 November)  it was, for the first time, publicly recognised that "it was Pakistan's intelligence cooperation that provided the initial evidence to trace the whereabouts of OBL" (Osama bin Laden).

The foreign ministry's announcement came after the US Chargé d'Affaires (US CdA)  Paul Jones visited the foreign office in Islamabad where he had been summoned by the Pakistani foreign secretary to "register a strong protest on the unwarranted and unsubstantiated allegations made against Pakistan" by Donald Trump.

"No other country had paid a heavier price than Pakistan in the fight against terrorism. The US leadership had acknowledged on multiple occasions that Pakistan's cooperation had helped in decimating the core Al-Qaeda leadership and eradicating the threat of terrorism from the region. The US must not forget that scores of top AQ leaders were killed or captured by active Pakistani cooperation. Pakistan's continued support to the efforts of international community in Afghanistan through Ground/ Air and Sea lines of communication was unquestionably critical to the success of this Mission in Afghanistan", said the official press release.  

The Pakistani statement said that the two countries continue to seek ways to achieve a political settlement in Afghanistan and concludes with the remark that "baseless allegations about a closed chapter of history could seriously undermine…vital cooperation" between Islamabad and Washington.

READ MORE: US Suspends $1.66Bln in Security Aid to Pakistan After Trump-Khan Twitter Row

Pakistan Summons US Envoy to Protest Trump's Tweets on Osama Bin Laden
Earlier on 18 November Donald Trump, during an interview with the Fox News Sunday, claimed that Pakistan does not ‘do a damn thing' for the US in terms of countering the threat of terrorism, despite huge sums of money the US provides to Pakistan. Trump alleged that Pakistani authorities and ‘everybody in Pakistan' were aware of OBS's ‘nice mansion', which was located near a Pakistani military academy.

In response to Trump's comments, Pakistani PM Imran Khan fired back at the US president, calling his allegation a ‘tirade against Pakistan'.

After the row the two leaders had on Twitter the US Department of Defence announced that Washington was suspending a total of $1.66 billion in security assistance to Pakistan.

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