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The state of the recent controversial relations between Pakistan and the Trump administration is clearly dependent on the ability of Washington's new war plan for Afghanistan to reverse the 17-year-long conflict, said the top diplomat in Afghanistan. Pakistan.
US commanders on the ground in Afghanistan, as well as Pentagon and White House officials, have repeatedly said that Trump's strategy of bludgeoning the Taliban in peace talks with victories over the battle progressed. But officials in Islamabad, who, according to US administration officials, have contributed to the increasingly fragile security and political situation in the war-torn country, remain cautious, but M's policy Trump in Southeast Asia will bear fruit.
The future of US-Pakistan relations "depends on the improvement of the situation in Afghanistan," Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Wednesday. His remarks, delivered during a speech at the Washington-based US Institute for Peace, came after talks with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Advisor John Bolton.
"Secretary Pompeo is ready to listen," Qureshi said of his talks with the top US diplomat, dedicated to restoring degraded relations between the US government and Pakistan.
Qureshi's visit came about a month after Islamabad's rise to power as prime minister, Imran Khan, in power as the country's new prime minister. Khan's Tehreek-e-Insaf party came to power in July after gaining a political majority in a very careful parliamentary election, paving the way for Khan's possible appointment as prime minister. .
Politically conservative with a nationalist bias, Mr. Khan made empathic statements before extremist groups such as the Taliban and criticized US military actions in Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan. However, Qureshi described his meetings with Mr. Pompeo and Mr. Bolton as positive, saying that Islamabad and Washington may be willing to reverse a relationship that has deteriorated in recent months.
"Building positivity is sometimes difficult," Qureshi said. "The mentalities do not change overnight, they evolve",
He added that the move towards more positive relations was possible with the United States. That being said, the Pakistani diplomat has made it clear that any criticism of Pakistan's role in destabilizing Afghanistan would defeat such progress.
"We can not and should not be held accountable" for the difficulties in Afghanistan, Qureshi said.
The Trump White House has condemned Islamabad for supporting groups such as the Haqqani Network and the Pakistani Taliban during the deployment of the South Asia Strategy last August. Islamabad has repeatedly countered these accusations by extolling its own losses in the face of Afghan and Pakistani Taliban attacks in the years following the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan by the United States.
To that end, Qureshi said that Pakistan would use all options to persuade moderate elements of the Taliban to participate in negotiations.
"Pakistan is ready and will use all its influence to do that … There is no other way" to end the war in Afghanistan, he said.
In June, reports surfaced that a US delegation had met with Taliban officials in Doha on the occasion of the first bilateral talks with the terrorist group. This decision was part of the Trump Administration's strategy to force the Taliban to negotiate with Kabul.
Before Mr. Trump took office, Washington repeatedly deferred direct talks with the Taliban during the 17-year war, repeatedly asserting that any peace agreement must be negotiated by Kabul. Washington's decision to hold direct talks with the terrorist group – a long-standing demand from Taliban leaders – has undermined the legitimacy of the central government, critics say.
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