Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: US President Donald Trump on Sunday defended his administration’s decision to pull hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to Pakistan, saying the country “doesn’t do a damn thing for us.”

In an exclusive interview to Fox News, the US president also charged Pakistan for helping Osama bin Laden hide in the country. “You know, living – think of this – living in Pakistan, beautifully in Pakistan in what I guess they considered a nice mansion, I don’t know, I’ve seen nicer,” Trump said, referring to bin Laden and his former compound in Abbottabad.

The compound was demolished shortly after United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group forces in a daring late-night helicopter raid killed bin Laden there in 2011.

“But living in Pakistan right next to the military academy, everybody in Pakistan knew he was there,” he said. “And we give Pakistan $1.3 billion a year. … [bin Laden] lived in Pakistan, we’re supporting Pakistan, we’re giving them $1.3 billion a year -which we don’t give them anymore, by the way, I ended it because they don’t do anything for us, they don’t do a damn thing for us,” he added.

In the wide-ranging interview, Trump revealed that former president Obama had offered him some important guidance in the White House shortly after his 2016 election. “I think North Korea’s been very tough because you know we were very close. When I took that over – President Obama right in those two chairs, we sat and talked and he said that’s by far the biggest problem that this country has,” Trump said. “And I think we had real decision as to which way to go on North Korea and certainly at least so far I’m very happy with the way we went.”

Addressing national security matters, Trump said that he has been briefed on the audio recording of journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s apparent murder in Turkey, but said he hasn’t listened to it, calling it a ‘suffering tape’ that he was advised not to hear. “You saw we put on very heavy sanctions, massive sanctions on a large group of people from Saudi Arabia,” Trump said. “But at the same time we do have an ally and I want to stick with an ally that in many ways has been very good.”

Trump said it ‘takes two to tango’ to resolve the conflict in Yemen, where Iranian-backed insurgents are facing off in a proxy war against Saudi-backed forces, noting that “I want Saudi to stop, but I want Iran to stop also.”

Published in Daily Times, November 19^th 2018.