WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said that India and other countries must assume the battle against militants as the US negotiates a withdrawal from Afghanistan, adding that Pakistan is fighting as frontline state.
He also warned Europeans to take back nationals captured fighting for the Islamic State, or he will release them back to their countries.
He singled out India and Pakistan as frontline countries that are doing little to fight militants groups.
“Look, India s right there, they are not fighting it. The Trump administration has reduced the US military presence in Syria and Iraq and is negotiating a US withdrawal from Afghanistan with the Taliban insurgents. But defense experts warn that a vacuum left by the United States could allow an extremist resurgence.
A recent Pentagon report said that the Islamic State is reforming and launching attacks after losing their hold on physical territory in Iraq and Syria. Trump, meanwhile, assailed France and Germany for not repatriating citizens who had fought with Islamic state and are now being held in camps in Syria.
“We’re holding thousands of ISIS fighters right now. And Europe has to take them,” he said. “If Europe doesn t take them, I ll have no choice but to release them into the countries from which they came. Which is Germany and France and other places.”
“We captured them, we ve got thousands of them, and now as usual our allies don t want em,” he said. “The United States is not going to put them in Guantanamo for the next 50 years and pay for it.”
