Washington: Any chance of Pakistan and USA improving their relations after Imran Khan took over as the new prime minister in Islamabad suffered a setback after the two sides squabbled publicly over the substance of a phone call ahead of an expected high-level diplomatic engagement next month. It began with a US state department statement giving a brief description of secretary of state Mike Pompeo’s phone call to Imran Khan, in course of which it said he (Pompeo) “raised the importance of Pakistan taking decisive action against all terrorists operating in Pakistan and its vital role in promoting the Afghan peace process.”
No such talks, says Islamabad
Islamabad shot back saying there was no talk on terrorists operating in Pakistan. It didn’t stop there. “Pakistan takes exception to the factually incorrect statement issued by US State Dept on today’s phone call between PM Khan & Sec Pompeo. There was no mention at all in the conversation about terrorists operating in Pakistan,” Pakistan’s foreign office spokesperson Mohammed Faisal tweeted, adding, “This shd be immediately corrected.”
Pakistan’s foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, too, insisted that Pompeo did not mention terror. He said Pompeo expressed his desire for “constructive engagement” with Pakistan’s government. No way, the US state department responded soon after; Washington stands by the original readout of the phone call between Pompeo and Imran Khan. The different reading of the phone call is not unexpected given that Pakistan has for long remained in denial about its hosting and sponsorship of terror groups despite copious publicly available reports in print and video, and repeatedly being called out by the international community, including at the United Nations.
Whether Pompeo referred explicitly to terrorists operating in Pakistan or not in this instance, Islamabad has been called out publicly on this score by no less than President Trump himself. “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 tweeted on January 1 this year. “They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!”
The two sides have barely engaged at high levels after Trump came to the White House, and some painstaking work at lower levels had resulted in Pompeo fitting in a stopover in Islamabad on September 5 on his way to New Delhi for talks with his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj. But the public spat over contents of the call has put a question mark over the stopover, even as the Pakistani media has responded angrily to the purported slight of Pompeo calling Khan instead of President Trump making the call as protocol would require.
Trump has made no effort to engage the Pakistani leadership and clearly thinks poorly of the country. The US has not only whittled down the more than $1 billion plus a year it gave as aid to Pakistan but is also advising IMF to turn off the financial spigot and putting military exchanges on the backburner. The election of Khan, seen as a stooge of the Pakistan military, was eyed with some doubts by the Trump administration but it eventually welcomed the change. On his part, Khan appears to have decided already that he will not be intimidated by Washington.
