WASHINGTON: Pakistan must be part of a “sustainable solution” to the conflict in Afghanistan, says US Senator Lindsey Graham as Islamabad and Washington explore new possibilities for expanding their cooperation in Taliban-dominated Kabul.

After a meeting with Pakistan’s US Ambassador Asad Majeed Khan on Friday, Senator Graham emphasised Islamabad’s key role in the Afghan conflict in a series of tweets posted on his official site. “Any sustainable solution in Afghanistan must include Pakistan,” he wrote, while calling the region “very complicated” and the current situation “dangerous”.

Mr Graham, a senior Republican senator, was close to former US president Donald Trump and is still considered an influential lawmaker on Capitol Hill.

“We all must remember Pakistan is a nuclear-armed nation,” he said, pointing out that Pakistan too had its concerns about militants in Afghanistan. “There is a Pakistan version of the Taliban who wishes (to) topple the Pakistani government and military,” he wrote in a reference to the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, which has carried out gruesome attacks inside Pakistan, targeting schoolchildren and others.

Qureshi stresses importance of an ‘inclusive political settlement as the best way forward’

Senator Graham praised Pakistan’s cooperation in facilitating the evacuation of Americans and others from Afghanistan, saying: “Very much appreciate the efforts of the Pakistani government to assist with the evacuation of US citizens, our allies, and other nations.”.

Responding to the US senator in a tweet, Ambassador Khan said he discussed the Afghan situation with the US lawmaker and briefed him on Pakistan’s efforts to support evacuations from Afghanistan.

Last week, the US approached Islamabad to facilitate the evacuation and asked the Pakistani government also to use its influence to normalise the situation in Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover.

Pakistan is part of the so-called Extended Troika that Washington believes can play an effective role in enabling a political settlement in Afghanistan. The troika includes Pakistan, China, Russia and the United States.

The Biden administration, which inherited the US-Taliban deal from the previous administration, is determined to withdraw all its troops from Afghanistan by Aug 13. But it wants to stay engaged with Afghanistan after the withdrawal as well and has continued its efforts for a political settlement in Kabul. In recent briefings, senior US officials have made it clear that they will not cooperate with a Taliban-only government.

Since mid-August, when the Taliban took over Kabul, Washington has blocked Afghanistan’s assets in its banks. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund followed the US example and they too froze Kabul’s assets with them.

Since the Taliban takeover, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has spoken to all Troika members. He also called the foreign ministers of Turkey and India to discuss the US plan for a political settlement.

Mr Blinken also called his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi to discuss Afghanistan and the developing situation there.

According to Radio Pakistan, Mr Qureshi assured the chief US diplomat that Pakistan would remain closely engaged with the US and other international partners in “promoting efforts for supporting a peaceful and stable Afghanistan”.

The foreign minister stressed the importance of an “inclusive political settlement as the best way forward” in Afghanistan and underlined the need for the US to continue economic engagement with Afghanistan.

On Aug 26, National Security Adviser Moeed Yusuf said that the United States and Pakistan had a shared interest in working together in Afghanistan.

“I’m not asking for any sympathy for Pakistan,” the NSA said. “I’m thinking in terms of pure US selfish national interests. How does it help to push away a country of this size, stature and power?”

Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2021