Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan launched a verbal attack on the United States saying Washington views Pakistan as an useful tool to clean up the mess it has left behind in Afghanistan after 20 years of fighting the Taliban, while it engages with India to form a strategic partnership.

In an impromptu interaction with the foreign media in Islamabad on Thursday, Khan said Pakistan is just considered 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 none. He also said since the US decided to have a strategic partnership with India, Washington was treating Pakistan differently.

Islamabad is unhappy that US President Joe Biden has not spoken to Khan even once since he assumed office in January this year. But with the Taliban making massive gains towards its imminent reclaiming of Afghanistan from the Ashraf Ghani government, a government that is anathema to the Talibs, the Big Game is heading towards Pakistan’s favour with China backing its all-weather ally even as the US, Islamabad’s older buddy, looking askance.

Pakistan’s National Security Adviser Moeed Yousuf recently expressed disappointment at President Biden’s reluctance to contact Prime Minister Khan despite considering Islamabad as an important country in some critical issues like Afghanistan. Yousuf also said if US officials continue to ignore Pakistani leadership, Islamabad has other options.

However, the US State Department had assured Islamabad that Washington recognises Pakistan’s vital role in restoring peace in Afghanistan and wants Islamabad to play that role. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke over the phone with Pakistan Army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa this week and discussed the current situation in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan and the US government have been criticising Islamabad for raising instability in the region as Kabul believes that Pakistan assists the Taliban in escalating violence. Kabul and Washington also slammed Islamabad for providing safe haven and treatment to injured Taliban militants.

In the press conference, Imran Khan had also said the militants group won’t negotiate with the Afghanistan government until Ghani is president. Khan said a political settlement was looking difficult under current conditions as Taliban told him during a visit that the Ghani government was allegedly a puppet of the US.

The condition is that as long as Ashraf Ghani is there, Taliban is not going to talk to the Afghan government, Khan added.

Read Also: Taliban captures Lashkar Gah, Kandahar, in offensive towards Kabul

Last month, Imran Khan had said that the US really messed it up in Afghanistan as he questioned the American motive for the 2001 invasion of the country in the first place and then their subsequent attempts of seeking a political solution with the Taliban from a position of weakness.

Afghanistan has witnessed an escalation in Taliban offensive after US President Joe Biden’s announcement of the withdrawal of American and NATO troops by August 31. With this, the US will end its nearly two-decade military presence from the war-ravaged country. It is preparing to withdraw all diplomatic staff for whose security another 3,000-strong troop deployment has been made.

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