US asks Pakistan ‘not to accept Taliban until they fulfill promises’
Washington
US Foreign Minister Antony Blinken has said that Pakistan should not accept Taliban government in Afghanistan until they fulfill their promises made to world community.
Blinken was addressing the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee.
US secretary of states said that time has come to ‘revisit’ our ties with Pakistan. Pakistan has cooperated with the US to counter terrorism, he said.
Blinken said that US is also overseeing what role can Pakistan play towards Afghanistan. Pakistan should use its influence to persuade Taliban to fulfill their promises. “This is one of the things we’re going to be looking at in the days, and weeks ahead – the role that Pakistan has played over the last 20 years but also the role we would want to see it play in the coming years and what it will take for it to do that,” he said.
He told the committee that Pakistan has a “multiplicity of interests, some that are in conflict with ours.” The US official said that they have made it clear to Pakistan that it does not want Islamabad to recognise the Taliban government until it doesn’t give women their due rights and allows Afghans who want to leave the country, to do so.
Speaking about the US-Taliban relationship, Blinken said it was time to end a war spanning two decades in Afghanistan. “We achieved our objectives in Afghanistan,” he said, adding that the Biden administration inherited the peace agreement with the Taliban from its predecessor.
“The US was likely to suffer more losses by staying in Afghanistan,” he admitted. “There was no guarantee of the war ending anytime soon had the US decided to stay in Afghanistan for a longer duration.”
Blinken said the US has activated its diplomatic mission in Afghanistan, adding that Washington will keep helping US and Afghan citizens who are staying back in the country.
