Ahead of his meeting with President Donald Trump on Monday, Prime Minister Imran Khan has said the entire world now agrees with his stance that the situation in Afghanistan cannot be addressed militarily.
“I can take pride in the fact that I have been saying this from day one that there is no military solution to Afghanistan,” Khan told a large crowd of Pakistani-Americans who packed Washington’s Capital One Arena to listen to Khan, who will have his first meeting with President Trump since coming into power a year ago.
“When I argued that war will not resolve the Afghan issue, I faced a lot of criticism. I was branded Taliban Khan …. But now the entire world is saying that there can be no military solution in Afghanistan,” the prime minister said.
“I will present your case before (President) Donald Trump. And I will never let you down.”
Afghanistan is likely to be the major subject when the two leaders meet at the Oval office Monday.
The two sides will also have extended talks to be attended by Pakistan’s Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and members of Trump and Khan cabinets.
Both U.S. and Pakistani officials have said they will attempt to repair the ties which plunged to their lowest point in 2018 with President’s New Year Twitter diatribe and suspension of aid to Pakistan.
But the end of the year saw the two sides – which have seen many ups and downs in their post-9/11 engagement – launch a diplomatic drive to develop mutual understanding and in December President Trump addressed a letter to PM Khan seeking Pakistan’s help to start a process toward Afghan peace.
Pakistan has since then facilitated talks between the U.S. and Afghan Taliban to find a way out of the Afghanistan quagmire where Kabul is facing a mountain of challenges.
As Washington seeks to extricate from the Afghan war, Pakistan’s foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi says, there is now greater space for a focus on advancing bilateral relations.
Islamabad has also said it is not seeking aid but trade and investment from America.
For its part, the Trump Administration says it wants to see Pakistan help with securing a ceasefire in Afghanistan – where the Afghan Taliban continue to launch attacks – and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently said the U.S would like to have some kind of agreement by September this year.
U.S. Special Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad has held several rounds of negotiations with the Afghan Taliban in Qatar.
Islamabad recently joined U.S. China, and Russia in calling for an end to violence in Afghanistan, where the conflict has cost U.S. billions of dollars and thousands of lives since it invaded the landlocked country in late 2001 in the aftermath of 9/11 terrorist attacks. Afghans have suffered thousands of casualties and Pakistan has borne the brunt of militant bombings.
Now the Trump Administration has stepped up efforts to secure a ceasefire and an agreement to end the longest running war in the U.S, history, and sees Islamabad’s help as key to realizing that goal.
