Blinken: We will re-evaluate our relations with Pakistan.
The secretary of state said at a congressional hearing on Afghanistan that Washington would consider its relationship with Islamabad and its role in Afghanistan in the coming weeks.
“The United States will review its relationship with Pakistan in the coming weeks to determine what role Washington wants Pakistan to play,” Secretary of State Anthony Blinken told a congressional hearing, according to Reuters. Have the future of Afghanistan.
“Pakistan has many interests, some of which run counter to ours,” Blinken told the House Foreign Affairs Committee at the first plenary session of the US Congress on Afghanistan, which was convened after the US ‘s hasty withdrawal from the country. Is”.
“This is an issue that is about continuing to work hard for the future of Afghanistan, something that is also about taking refuge with Taliban members,” he said. This is an issue that involves us working together in various fields in the fight against terrorism.
“This is one of the issues we will look at in the coming days and weeks – the role that Pakistan has played over the past 20 years,” the secretary of state said in response to a question from a lawmaker about reassessing Washington’s relationship with Islamabad. But also the role we want Pakistan to play in the coming years and what it needs to do to achieve that.
Reuters also claimed that Pakistan had deep ties to the Taliban and was accused of supporting the group during the Taliban’s 20-year struggle against the US-backed government in Kabul; The allegations have been denied by Islamabad.
Blinken also defended the Biden administration’s actions in this regard, despite widespread criticism of the way US troops were withdrawing from Afghanistan.
“Even the worst assessments did not predict that government forces would fall in Kabul while US forces are there, although the Taliban have pledged to prevent terrorist groups from using Afghanistan as a base for threatening operations against the United States,” he said. N.
