US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Pakistan needs to “line up” with a broad majority of the international community regarding Afghanistan.
Testifying before Congress on the Taliban victory in Afghanistan, Blinken said that Pakistan was involved in “harbouring members of the Taliban, including terrorists from the proscribed Haqqani Network.
“The role that Pakistan has played throughout the past 20 years and even before is one that is involved hedging its bets constantly about the future of Afghanistan. It’s one that’s involved harboring members of the Taliban, including Haqqanis,” he told the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Pakistan has a “multiplicity of interests”, including some that are in “clear conflict” with that of the US, the top diplomat said, adding India’s involvement in Afghanistan has influenced some “detrimental” actions by Islamabad.
“What we have to look at is an insistence that every country, to include Pakistan, make good on the expectations that the international community has of what is required of a Taliban-led government if it’s to receive any legitimacy of any kind or any support,” Blinken said.
“Pakistan has a multiplicity of interests, some that are in conflict, clear conflict with ours. When it comes to Afghanistan, it’s focused, of course as well, on India and the role that India is playing in Afghanistan, and it looks at it through that prism as well,” he said.
Blinken further said that the United States will be looking at its relationship with Pakistan in the coming weeks to formulate what role Washington would want it play in the future of Afghanistan.
Pakistan has had deep ties with the Taliban and has been accused of being involved in the insurgent group’s miltary victory in US-backed government Afghanistan after 20 years – allegations refuted by Islamabad.
It is also considered as one of the two countries, along with Qatar, where many senior Taliban leaders were believed to have escaped to after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.
Weeks before fleeing Afghanistan, former President of the war-torn country Ashraf Ghani had told US President Joe about a possible “full-scale invasion” by the Taliban with the help of Pakistan.
In his last phone call with Biden on July 23 weeks before the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan, Ghani had said that nearly 15,000 Pakistani terrorists were in Afghanistan as part of a full-scale invasion, planned and supported by Pakistan.
