Hindustan Surkhiyan Desk: The outgoing US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, has asserted that the United States should not blindly give even one dollar to Pakistan until it beefs up the efforts to combat terrorism. Haley lashed out at Pakistan saying that the country continues to harbour terrorists that turn around and kill American soldiers. In an interview to US magazine ‘The Atlantic’, Haley said that the US does not give money to countries that wish harm to it, go behind its back and try to stop America from doing things.
The magazine quoted her as saying: “…I think there should be a strategic view on which countries we partner with, which ones we count on to work with us on certain things, and move forward accordingly. I think we just blindly allow money to keep going without thinking that this is real leverage. We have to use it. ”
She told the magazine that the United States should approach foreign aid in a more transactional way, offering it only to countries that show the U.S. goodwill. “We don’t need to be giving money to those that don’t want to be our partners, because there’s a lot of countries that do want to be our partners”, The Atlantic quoted her as saying.
“Look at Pakistan. Giving them over a billion dollars, and they continue to harbour terrorists that turn around and kill our soldiers. That’s never okay. We shouldn’t even give them a dollar until they correct it”, she told it.
Haley, the first Indian-American ever appointed to a Cabinet position in any US presidential administration will step down as the UN envoy at the end of this year. US President Donald Trump last week nominated chief State Department spokeswoman and a former Fox News journalist Heather Nauert as Haley’s successor.
Last month, Trump also defended US’ decision to stop hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to Pakistan, saying Islamabad does not do “a damn thing” for the US. Trump also lambasted Pakistan for sheltering 9/11 terrorist Osama Bin to hide near its garrison city of Rawalpindi and never telling US about it.
