U.S. suspends military aid to Pakistan

The U.S. State Department on Thursday said it will suspend military assistance to Pakistan worth as much as $900 million over the country’s failure to take “decisive action” against the Afghan Taliban and Haqqani militant groups. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert in a statement said the United States will not deliver military equipment or transfer security-related funds to Pakistan because of its association with the terror groups. “We consider them to be destabilizing the region and also targeting U.S. personnel,” she said. Pentagon spokesman Cmdr. Patrick Evans said Congress authorized as much as $900 million for Pakistan in the 2017 fiscal year. The freeze also will cover $225 million in military financing the United States put on hold in August, Nauert added. In a tweet Monday, President Donald Trump said Pakistan repaid the United States with “lies and deceit” despite receiving more than $33 billion in aid during the past 15 years. Nuhzat Sadiq, chairwoman of Pakistan’s Senate Foreign Affairs committee expressed disappointment with the U.S. decision, saying it “is not good for its policy against terrorism and for lasting peace in this region.”