USD 300 mn from US neither aid nor assistance: Pak Foreign Minister

Pakistan Foreign Minister SM Qureshi has said that the USD 300 million from the United States was neither an aid nor an assistance. Qureshi was reacting on Sunday to the US military's decision to cancel financial aid to Pakistan.

"This came under the Coalition Support Fund (CSF). We spent this money from our own resources for shared goal of war against terrorism. They are supposed to reimburse it but till now they haven't," Qureshi said adding that the Pentagon took the decision to suspend the aid in January itself.

Pentagon spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Kone Faulkner responded via e-mail to ANI, "Unfortunately, recent reporting has distorted the details of the CSF by stating several things out of context. The suspension of security assistance to Pakistan was announced in January 2018. CSF is included in the suspension and it remains in place. This is not a new decision or a new announcement, but an acknowledgment of a July request to reprogram funds before they expire."

On Saturday, it was reported that the United States military cancelled the financial aid worth USD 300 million to Pakistan due to the growing concerns regarding Islamabad's failure to tackle terrorism.

The report of cancellation of the US aid came ahead of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford's expected trip to Islamabad on September 5.

In January, Pentagon had cut USD 1 billion worth financial aid to Pakistan, with Defense Secretary James Mattis and other officials citing Islamabad's failure to crack down on the Haqqani terror outfit as the reason behind it, Fox News reported.