US envoy in Pakistan after Taliban takeover of Afghanistan
A senior US official is in Pakistan to urge Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government to take action against extremist groups after the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August.
US deputy secretary of state Wendy Sherman will spend two days in Islamabad.
“We seek a strong partnership with Pakistan on counterterrorism and we expect sustained action against all militant and terrorist groups without distinction,” she said.
Ms Sherman’s mission, which includes stops in Uzbekistan and India, coincides with a US assessment of how to have some type of military capability in Afghanistan after Washington withdrew all of its forces at the end of a 20-year war.
The Pentagon has spoken of “over-the-horizon” capabilities against ISIS and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan but its options are limited when launching air strikes from warships in the Arabian Sea.
Islamabad last month initiated talks with the Taliban for an “inclusive” government in Afghanistan.
That step was welcomed by Ms Sherman.
“We look to Pakistan to play a critical role in enabling that outcome,” she said.
Mr Khan, a critic of US military campaigns, said last week that his government had opened talks with the Pakistani Taliban about laying down their arms.
“Some of the Pakistani Taliban groups actually want to talk to our government for some peace, for some reconciliation,” he said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told politicians last month that Pakistan has myriad interests conflicting with those of the US.
Washington has often said parts of Pakistan’s ISI intelligence agency continued to covertly support the Taliban. Islamabad denies those claims.
Mr Khan complicated matters for Ms Sherman when he said the Taliban had “broken the shackles of slavery” after the US departure, and that the Washington would eventually have to recognise the group.
The US and other western countries are reluctant to recognise the Taliban regime and the UN rejected the group’s effort to address last month’s General Assembly.
Mr Blinken told US legislators that Pakistan must deny legitimacy to the Taliban unless they meet the international community’s demands.
Those include respecting the rights of women and girls and ensuring Afghanistan does not become “a haven for outward-directed terror”.