Khan: US is simply using Pakistan to tidy up mess
PAKISTANI prime minister Imran Khan accused the United States of seeing his country as useful only in the context of the ‘mess’ it is leaving behind in Afghanistan after 20 years of fighting.
Washington has been pressing Pakistan to use its influence over the Taliban to broker an elusive peace deal as negotiations between the insurgents and Afghan government have stalled, and violence in Afghanistan has escalated sharply.
‘Pakistan is just considered only to be useful in the context of somehow settling this mess which has been left behind after 20 years of trying to find a military solution when there was not one,’ Mr Khan told journalists at his home in Islamabad.
The US will pull out its military by August 31, some 20 years after toppling the Taliban government in 2001. But, as the US leaves, the Taliban today controls more territory than at any point since then.
Kabul and several Western governments say Pakistan’s support for the insurgent group allowed it to weather the war.
The charge of supporting the Taliban despite being a US ally has long been a sore point between Washington and Islamabad.
Pakistan strongly denies supporting the Taliban, and Mr Khan said Islamabad was not taking sides in Afghanistan.
‘I think that the Americans have decided that India is their strategic partner now, and I think that is why there is a different way of treating Pakistan now,’ Mr Khan said.
Pakistan and India are arch-rivals and have fought three wars. The two share frosty ties and currently have minimal diplomatic relations.
A political settlement in Afghaniistan] stan was looking difficult under current conditions, Mr Khan added.
He said he tried to persuade Taliban leaders when they were visiting Pakistan to reach a settlement.
Mr Khan quoted the Taliban leaders as telling him: ‘The condition is that as long as [president of AfghanAshraf Ghani is there, we are not going to talk to the Afghan government.’ Peace talks between the Taliban, who view Mr Ghani and his government as US puppets, and a team of Kabul-nominated Afghan negotiators started last September but have made no substantive progress in that time.
Representatives of a number of countries, including the US, are currently in the Qatari capital of Doha talking to both sides in a last-ditch push to bring about a ceasefire.
US forces have continued to use air strikes to support Afghan forces against Taliban advances, but it remains unclear if such support will continue after August 31. Mr Khan said his country had ‘made it very clear’ it does not want any American military bases in Pakistan after US forces exit Afghanistan. news@dailymail.ie
Pakistan denies supporting Taliban