'US Considers Pakistan Useful Only To Clean Up 20 Yrs Of Mess In Afghanistan': PM Imran Khan

“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,” Imran Khan said.

Image Source: AFP

New Delhi: Prime Minister Imran Khan said that the United States only finds Pakistan useful to clean up the mess it is leaving behind after 20 years in Afghanistan.

This comes as Washington is pushing Islamabad to strike a peace deal with the Taliban after all negotiations with the Afghan government failed and the violence in the country continues to escalate.

“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,” PM Khan told the foreign press according to Reuters.

The Taliban has taken over many parts of Afghanistan as the U.S. military troops are preparing to leave the country completely by August 31, 2021, 20 years after toppling the Taliban in 2001. Although they continue airstrikes, however, it is unclear if it will be like so after the end of the month.

“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,” he said stating that Islamabad was not taking sides in Afghanistan.

He further said a political settlement seems difficult given the current state of the country and that he tried to persuade the 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.

Representatives of many countries including the US are in Doha, Qatar to push of a ceasefire.