US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to reach Islamabad today

ISLAMABAD (92 News) – US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will reach Islamabad on a one-day visit on Tuesday. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford will also accompany him. Pompeo will call on Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi. Both dignitaries will discuss bilateral cooperation and peace in Afghanistan. After meeting Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Pak-US delegation level talks will be held at Foreign Office. The US officials are expected to meet Prime Minister Imran Khan after the delegation level talks. Pompeo will leave for New Delhi the same day. Earlier, the US had cancelled $300 million in aid to Pakistan that had been suspended over Islamabad’s perceived failure to take decisive action against militants, in a new blow to deteriorating ties. The so-called Coalition Support Funds were part of a broader suspension in aid to Pakistan announced by President Donald Trump at the start of the year, when he said Pakistan of rewarding past assistance with “nothing but lies & deceit.” The Trump administration says Islamabad is granting safe haven to insurgents who are waging a 17-year-old war in neighbouring Afghanistan, a charge Pakistan denies. But US officials had held out the possibility that Pakistan could win back that support if it changed its behaviour. US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, in particular, had an opportunity to authorise $300 million in CSF funds through this summer - if he saw concrete Pakistani actions to go after insurgents. Mattis chose not to, a US official told Reuters. “Due to a lack of Pakistani decisive actions in support of the South Asia Strategy the remaining $300 (million) was reprogrammed,” Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Kone Faulkner said.