While reports on Thursday suggested US aid to Pakistan could be cut by $255 million to $400 million, officials on Friday suggest the figure is to be much larger, with one administration official say $2 billion is “in play.”
Which isn’t to say that the cuts will be all of $2 billion, but rather that this is the maximum possible, for what officials say is not yet finalized. Some $900 million is already cut, and more is expected to come.
This follows months of threats to cut Pakistan aid, which came to a head a week ago, when President Trump declared the US to have given Pakistan $33 billion and got nothing in return, suggesting the money would be better spent elsewhere.
Pakistani officials have expressed anger at Trump’s comments, less about the cuts themselves than about the allegations that they support terrorism. Pakistani officials have said the US is scapegoating them for their own failures in Afghanistan.
Source: www.antiwar.com, www.theantimedia.org
