Donald Trump begins 2018 with angry tweets aimed at Pakistan and Iran

US president, Donald Trump has started the New Year by launching a series of angry Twitter attack at Pakistan and Iran, saying it was “time for change in Iran and criticising Pakistan for its “lies and deceit”. 

The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 1, 2018

It was not clear why Trump opted to tweet on Pakistan. The US has long accused Istanbul of allowing militants to operate relatively freely in Pakistan’s border regions to carry out operations in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Soon after his Pakistan tweet, Trump also said it was “time for change” in Iran and that the country’s people were “hungry” for freedom, after days of deadly protests against the government in Tehran.

Iran is failing at every level despite the terrible deal made with them by the Obama Administration, Trump tweeted, referring to the nuclear pact sealed under his Democratic predecessor Barack Obama.

Iran is failing at every level despite the terrible deal made with them by the Obama Administration. The great Iranian people have been repressed for many years. They are hungry for food & for freedom. Along with human rights, the wealth of Iran is being looted. TIME FOR CHANGE!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 1, 2018

Trump has been vocal on Twitter about the protests in Iran since they erupted last week.

The world is watching!” he said, reposting clips of his speech to the United Nations General Assembly in September.

Oppressive regimes cannot endure forever, and the day will come when the Iranian people will face a choice, he tweeted, quoting from the speech.

But Iranian President Hassan Rouhani hit back, saying Trump — whose “whole being is against the nation of Iran — had “no right” to sympathise with protesters.

Ten people were killed overnight in Iran, local media reported, bringing the death toll after four days of protests to 12.

The uneasy relationship between the United States and Pakistan has been on a downward spiral since the 2011 US operation that located and killed Osama bin Laden in the military garrison town of Abbottabad, about 118 kilometres from the capital Islamabad.

AFP