As the furore over President Donald Trump's tweets attacking U.S. ally Pakistan continues, the country's foreign minister has written a damning indictment of the United States' involvement in Afghanistan.
In a series of tweets late Wednesday, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif condemned the U.S. and the cost of the war on terror fought in Afghanistan since 2001. The minister, who Tuesday summoned the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan over the ongoing Twitter fight said ultimately Pakistan had learnt not to trust the America.
Related: U.S. ignores terrorists, Pakistan says, as ambassador summoned over trump lies and deceit tweet
"Our country witnessed the worst bloodbath. You carried out 57,800 attacks on Afghanistan from our bases, your forces were supplied arms and explosives through our soil, thousands of our civilians and soldiers became victims of the war initiated by you," Asif wrote in tweets translated by Pakistan's Dawn newspaper.
"We considered your enemy as our own, we filled the Guantanamo Bay," he wrote in further tweets. "For the past four years, we have been clearing the debris … We are feeling sorry as you are not happy but we will not compromise on our prestige anymore," the minister concluded.
Asif was responding for the second time to tweets made by the president January 1 accusing Pakistan of providing a safe haven to the Taliban. The Pakistani minister had earlier questioned the figure of $33 billion in aid Trump quoted in his tweets.
"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.
"They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!" he added.
Tuesday, Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi summoned a National Security Committee meeting with his most ministers senior ministers to respond to the tweets.
Pakistan's Ministry of Defense, and Pakistani sportsman turned politician Imran Khan have also weighed in on the exchange of invective online. Khan, who is a cricket superstar in Pakistan and the leader of the political opposition, said Trump was "ignorant and ungrateful."
The alliance between the United States and Pakistan, a conservative Islamic country, in the war against terror has been strained in recent years. The Trump administration has also been indecisive in how it will treat relations with Islamabad and how it will pursue the war in Afghanistan.
In August Trump said Pakistan was a valued ally against the Taliban, Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) which has gained a foothold in Afghanistan and carried out a series of attacks against religious minorities.
In 2017 the White House increased troop levels in Afghanistan to about 14,000, a move some experts have said shows little departure from the strategies the U.S. has used in the country since the start of the U.S.-led invasion.
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Callum Paton is a staff writer at Newsweek specializing in North Africa and the Middle East. He has worked freelance ... Read more
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