US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller has said the alleged text of the diplomatic cipher proved that there was no conspiracy.
In March 2022, a news report was published on “The Intercept” about the cipher’s text sent by the Pakistani ambassador to the United States Asad Majeed, which contained the purported text of the diplomatic letter written by former ambassador after a conversation with US Assistant Secretary of State for Central and South Asia Donald Lu.
“I can’t talk about the authenticity of this document, if what was reported was even 100 percent correct, it doesn’t in any way show that the United States has taken a position on which leader should lead Pakistan,” Miller said at a press briefing in Washington.
Matthew Miller said that the US had expressed its concerns with Pakistan privately and publicly about former prime minister Imran Khan’s visit to Moscow on the day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but at that time Pakistan’s former ambassador to the US had said that these allegations are not true.
“If the contents of this letter are viewed in context, it appears that the US government is expressing its concern over the policy choice of former prime minister Imran Khan and not expressing its priority about who should be the leader of Pakistan,” the State Department spokesperson said.
Matthew Miller said that in the conversation of the US State Department official with the Pakistani ambassador who formed the basis of the cipher, the words of the US official were used for political purposes out of context.
It may be recalled that Imran Khan had said in 2022 that there were details of the meeting between US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Donald Lu and Pakistani Ambassador Asad Majeed in Cypher and Donald Lu had warned the ambassador that if Imran Khan remained in power, there would be consequences.
According to the report of “The Intercept”, there is no mention of the results or any warning in the contents of the cipher, but Donald Lu has been quoted as saying that if the no-confidence motion against Imran Khan is successful, everyone in Washington will be forgiven.
However, The Intercept admitted that it could not only verify the authenticity of the document but also published the alleged cipher which corrected minor flaws in the text as such details could be used to watermark documents and track their dissemination.
