What comes as a change in heart at the White House, a senior US envoy has publicly said that ‘Washington has no choice but to work with Islamabad on the way ahead in Afghanistan’. This a rather different narrative from what was previously being heard in the power corridors of the US, following the Taliban takeover of the war-torn country. President Joe Biden has not held any telephonic talks with Prime Minister Imran Khan since he assumed office in January last year. Six months into his presidentship, the fall of Kabul was witnessed even before the US troops completed their evacuation from Afghanistan. But not only had Biden administration not engaged with Pakistan on Afghanistan, but voices from Washington had been limited to ‘Pakistan is our strategic partner’. There was little to no murmur on Pakistan’s pivotal role in the Afghanistan situation.
The statement assuring that an impasse between the two traditional allies might be coming to an end soon was made by US Special Representative for Afghanistan Tom West. “They [Pakistani leaders] have huge amounts of expertise in their system on these [Afghan] matters,” he said. West also noted that in the recent past Washington has shown pragmatism as “you are not hearing leaders from across the spectrum spending time and energy criticising Pakistan and looking backwards.” The US has in the past used this country as a scapegoat for its failures in Afghanistan. West’s statement then comes as a respite for the Pakistan leadership, who can also do away with publicly criticizing the US policy in Afghanistan during the past 20 years in interviews on foreign media outlets.
The fact remains that both Islamabad and Washington need to work together to find a solution to the many challenges the Afghan people are facing as well as the region, from the humanitarian crisis to the threat of international terrorism. More importantly, the potential fresh rounds of talks will also help Washington broaden its scope as it needs to stop looking at Pakistan through the Afghan prism. The two allies can work on a more broad-based relationship. As Pakistan has reiterated on occasions that this country “will partner with the US on peace, not war.”
