F.P. Report
Washington DC – The U.S. Ambassador Dr. Asad M. Khan on Sunday August 22, wrote an open letter to Representative Waltz in response to his letter to US President Joe Biden denying his false allegations on Pakistan and underscoring the inclusive role of both countries for political settlement in Afghanistan.
Representative Waltz on August 13, wrote an open letter to US President Joe Biden, calling on him to review his decisions on Afghanistan in the wake of ongoing events and further provided some recommendations. While doing so he mischaracterized the role of Pakistan with false allegations without any strong grounds.
Waltz blamed Pakistan for dictating the Taliban regime, while choosing not to play its part in coordination with ANDSF. He also requested the president to immediately cut off all the aid to Pakistan as it was aiding the Taliban in return. Furthermore, he urged the President to sanction Pakistan unless it enhances its efforts to prevent the regrouping among the Taliban.
In response to Waltz’ allegation on Pakistan’s military strategy being supportive to Taliban, the Ambassador took the stance that Pakistan had always opposed the government by force in Afghanistan urging the Afghan government and the Taliban to show some flexibility to secure a comprehensive ceasefire. Unfortunately, both the parties didn’t pay heed to the advice.
He also further recalled Pakistan’s support for the formation of a broad based government in Kabul with full representation of Afghanistan’s ethnic diversity and preservation of social and democratic gains since 2001.
While citing the issues of low morale of ANDSF, Dr. Asad highlighted U.S government’s wrong assessment and highlighted that the desertion of 300,000-strong forces of ANDSF trained at the cost of $83 billion could not just be blamed upon “Pakistan’s military strategy” considering the fact that their own president abandoned them in the hour on need and fled away while Pakistan was hosting their political leaders.
In his letter, Waltz demanded the immediate resign of the Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation, Zalmay Khaidzad, pointing out his failed diplomatic strategy and poor council stating that his claim about “Taliban’s substantial progress on their counterterrorism commitments” were wrong.
Dr. Asad in his letter said that the Afghan government had been steadily losing the territory to Taliban and thus the collapse of Afghan government was hardly a surprise.
While bringing forward Pakistan’s efforts in the evacuation of stranded American and Afghan citizens at the Hamid Karzai Airport, Dr. Asad said that apart from fully functioning embassy in Kabul, Pakistan International Airlines had been ferrying foreign diplomats, journalists and international aid workers out of Afghanistan.
In the end, Waltz ended his letter pressurizing the President further stating America’s credibility at sake and mentioning that the whole country was watching, while Dr. Asad was kind enough to assure him his country’s everlasting support despite his allegations.
