Blinken said: We should reconsider US relationship with Pakistan
WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Antony Johm Blinken said on Tuesday that US relationship with Pakistan will be reviewed in the coming days. These were the words of US Secretary of State John Kerry as he spoke to the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee. This was the first public session on Afghanistan in Congress since the failure of the US-backed Afghan government last month.
According to a US official, the US has made it very clear to Pakistan that it does not want Islamabad to recognize the Taliban leadership until it guarantees women equal rights and enables Afghans to exit the country. Pakistan has “a range of interests, some of which are in clash with one another,” he told the panel.
When asked by senators if it is time for us to reconsider US relationship with Pakistan, Blinken said the government will do so shortly. One of the factors we’ll be examining at in the days and weeks following is the role that Pakistan has performed over the last 20 years, as well as the role we’d like to see it serve in the next years and what it will take to get there, he said.
The United States’ departure from Afghanistan was highlighted by a quickly planned airlift that left thousands of Afghans who were US allies behind. It was capped off by a suicide explosion outside Kabul’s airport, which murdered 13 US soldiers and a large number of Afghans. It’s one that’s included regularly adjusting its chances on future of Afghanistan, and it’s one that’s involved hosting Taliban militants.
It’s one that’s also engaged in counter-terrorism engagement with us in various ways, Blinken said.
Pakistan has long had relations with the Taliban and has been involved in helping the group in its 20-year war against the US-backed government in Kabul, claims that Islamabad denies. In the aftermath of the Taliban’s success, the US and Western countries are caught in a hard balancing act, anxious to accept the group while acknowledging the truth that they will have to work with them to avoid a growing humanitarian crisis.
Blinken stated that the US diplomatic mission in Afghanistan has been established, and that Washington will continue to support US and Afghan individuals who remain in the country.
In Afghanistan, “we fulfilled our goals,” he remarked, noting that the Biden government received the Taliban peace accord from its prior. Blinken, speaking about the US-Taliban relationship, said it was past time to put a stop to Afghanistan’s two-decade-long war.
The Biden office had told the Ashraf Ghani government to protect itself against the Taliban, according to the US secretary of state. He claimed that China wished for US troops to remain stuck in Afghanistan. Blinken stated that the US was working on evacuation arrangements at the Kabul airport, and that Qatar and Turkey were in communication.
