In his first State of the Union address on Tuesday night, President Trump said: "Last month, I also took an action endorsed unanimously by the Senate just months before: I recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Shortly afterwards, dozens of countries voted in the United Nations General Assembly against America's sovereign right to make this recognition. American taxpayers generously send those same countries billions of dollars in aid every year."
"That is why, tonight, I am asking the Congress to pass legislation to help ensure American foreign-assistance dollars always serve American interests, and only go to America's friends...As we strengthen friendships around the world, we are also restoring clarity about our adversaries," Trump further said.
Foreign Office spokesperson Dr Mohammad Faisal could not be reached for comments.
However, responding to a similar question in his recent weekly media briefing, the spokesperson defended Pakistan's principled position on the issue of Jerusalem, saying "Pakistan views the decision of US Administration to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and to shift the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem as violation of relevant UN Security Council resolutions."
He said that Jerusalem has a special status called "Corpus Separatum" (separate body) under the UN General Assembly's Partition Plan for Palestine (Resolution 181, dated November 1947). "There are a number of UNSC resolutions recognizing the special legal and political status of Jerusalem, in particular Resolution 476 and 478, piloted by Pakistan as Chair of OIC," he added.
Pakistan has received a total of $5.23 billion US civilian aid since 9/11, according to Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif's statement in Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs on January 17, 2018. He further said that the amount also included assistance given through various NGOs and INGOs.
According to the data available on the official website of USAID, it stated that over the past decade, the United States, through USAID, has given Pakistan nearly $7.7 billion of assistance. Pakistan remains one of America's largest recipients of foreign assistance, a sign of our long-term partnership and commitment, it added.
USAID's programmes in Pakistan focus on five key areas: energy, economic growth, resilience, education, and health.
In energy sector, it pointed out that since 2011 Pakistan has added more than 3,042 megawatts of electricity to the national grid through the US assistance which also includes 1,013 megawatts from new or rehabilitated dams and thermal power plants, and 2,029 megawatts from improvements in the transmission and distribution system.
It further mentioned that USAID-funded renovations of Tarbela Dam in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the Jamshoro and Guddu Thermal Power Plants in Sindh, and the Muzaffargarh Thermal Power Plant in Punjab generated 978 MW of electricity.
Additionally, Satpara Dam in Gilgit Baltistan and Gomal Zam Dam in South Waziristan generated an additional 35 MW of electricity and help to mitigate floods, store water for irrigation, and provide millions of gallons of water for use per day. The rehabilitation of Mangla Dam is currently in progress, it added.
It further stated that USAID worked with power distribution companies (DISCOs) to improve management systems, upgrade equipment, and maintain the distribution network, adding that DISCO improvements recovered 212 megawatts of electricity and saved over $429 million.
However, security analysts maintained that the US may not take such an extreme step which would also target its allies in Middle East and the West.
"I think Trump is just trying to please Israel...Pakistan was not alone to vote against the US in the UN General Assembly. There are also countries that are strong US allies such as in the Middle East and the European countries who also opposed Donald Trump's move to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel," said Lieutenant General Talat Masood (Retd), a senior security and defence analyst.
As for as Pakistan's assistance is concerned, he said that the US was only using pressure tactics, adding that the US has only suspended military assistance that could be disbursed at any stage.
"The Americans believe that Pakistan is not taking serious action against Haqqani network and I believe that the statements coming from Washington with regard to Pakistan are just pressure tactics to what they [Americans] want Pakistan to do before the suspended assistance is released," he concluded.