RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan January 4, 2018 Zalmay Khalilzad, the former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan and the United Nations, expressed support for President Donald Trump’s tough line against Islamabad and said the administration is likely studying various methods to put pressure on Pakistan for what he called its lack of cooperation in the fight against
Press TV / January 3, 2018 Pakistan’s opposition leader Imran Khan has denounced Donald Trump as “ignorant and ungrateful” after the US president accused Islamabad of harboring terrorists. Khan, who has ambitions to become Pakistan’s next prime minister, said in a Twitter post on Wednesday that the Trump administration was making Pakistan a scapegoat to
VOA News / January 2, 2018 Pakistan has summoned the U.S. ambassador to protest President Donald Trump’s tweets accusing Islamabad of sheltering terrorists who are battling U.S. forces in neighboring Afghanistan. A spokesperson for the U.S. embassy in Islamabad says David Hale was summoned to the foreign ministry Monday night to discuss Trump’s New Year’s
VOA News January 1, 2018 Ayaz Gul ISLAMABAD — U.S. President Donald Trump is again accusing Pakistan of sheltering terrorists whom American forces are fighting in neighboring Afghanistan. In his first Twitter message of 2018, Trump wrote, “The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years,
VOA News / December 30, 2017 Ayaz Gul ISLAMABAD — Pakistan says that almost 92 percent of its 2,611-kilometer largely porous frontier with Afghanistan will be fenced by end of 2018, hoping the massive unilateral undertaking will effectively address mutual complaints of militant incursions. The military-led construction effort went into action earlier this year. It has
December 26, 2017 RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan Afghan officials say Taliban militants shot and killed five travelers in the country’s central province of Ghazni. Speaking on December 26, Ghazni Provincial Council member Nasir Ahmad Faqiri said the killing occurred late at night on December 25 in the village of Arzo near the provincial capital Ghazni.
William Gallo VOA News December 4, 2017 KUWAIT CITY, KUWAIT — Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said Monday at the start of talks with visiting U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis that Pakistan is committed to the war against terror. “Nobody wants peace in Afghanistan more than Pakistan,” Abbasi said. He added that the United States
Michael Hughes: Recent efforts to jumpstart a dialogue between the U.S. and Pakistan seem futile given the duo’s irreconcilable differences – especially in two key areas. The U.S. wants Pakistan to hand over the Haqqani Network and other Afghan Taliban while Islamabad would like Washington to dial down its love affair with India. However, it is
Ayaz Gul VOA News / November 30, 2017 ISLAMABAD — Pakistan says high-level discussions “away from public glare” are under way with the United States to bridge differences stemming from the new Afghan strategy U.S. President Donald Trump announced in August. Pakistan did not agree with the U.S. policy because “there was a difference in understanding
Ayaz Gul VOA News / November 29, 2017 ISLAMABAD — Just days before U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is scheduled to visit Pakistan for crucial talks, the top American general in Afghanistan has alleged the Pakistani spy agency continues to maintain ties with the Haqqani terrorist network and allows Taliban leaders to operate out of havens