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Pakistan is Useful to U.S. Only for Cleaning Up the “Mess” it Left Behind in Afghanistan: Imran Khan

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Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has accused the United States of seeing Pakistan as useful only in the context of the “mess” it is leaving behind in Afghanistan after 20 years of fighting.

“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,” Khan told foreign journalists at his home in Islamabad.

United States has been pressing Pakistan to use its influence over the Taliban to broker an elusive peace deal as negotiations between the Taliban and Afghan government have stalled, and violence in Afghanistan has escalated sharply.

The United States had announced the troop exit by the end of August, 20 years after toppling the Taliban government in 2001. Since the U.S has announced its exit, the Taliban has gained control over more Afghan territory than at any point since then.

The Afghanistan as well as various governments of other countries say Pakistan’s support for the Taliban allowed it to weather the war.

Pakistan denies supporting the Taliban. Imran Khan also said that 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’s why there’s a different way of treating Pakistan now,” Khan said.

Khan added that a political settlement in Afghanistan was looking difficult under current conditions.

He said he tried to persuade Taliban leaders when they were visiting Pakistan to reach a settlement.

“The condition is that as long as Ashraf Ghani is there, we (Taliban) are not going to talk to the Afghan government,” Khan said, quoting the Taliban leaders as telling him.

Pak P.M., Imran Khan also said that Pakistan had “made it very clear” that it does not want any American military bases in Pakistan after US forces exit Afghanistan.

The Peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government have been of no use since they began in last September.

Currently, various countries are participating in discussions regarding peace talk in Afghanistan at Doha, Qatar.

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