Abbasi says Trump Afghan strategy poised to fail

KARACHI: Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has stressed the need for political settlement to the crisis in Afghanistan, saying U.S President Donald Trump’s strategy will meet the same fate as the plans of his predecessors.

“From day one we have been saying very clearly the military strategy in Afghanistan has not worked and it will not work, the premier said in an interview with Bloomberg News.

Abbasi said his government supported the fight against terrorists and it won’t let the war in Afghanistan to spill into Pakistan. He said Pakistan was willing to work with all countries including India to achieve regional stability. Still, he added the Afghan government should be “owning” the issue and dealing with the Taliban.

“If they require our support, our support is available,” the premier said and added “Our Support is unconditional as far as terrorism is concerned.”

He said, “We do not intend to allow anybody to fight Afghanistan’s battle on Pakistan’s soil. “Whatever has to happened in Afghanistan should be happening in Afghanistan,” he said reiterating that Pakistan doesn’t harbor terrorists.

Earlier, National Security Committee has outright rejected the allegations of Donald Trump against Pakistan.

The meeting of National Security Committee was held in Islamabad last week with Abbasi in the chair to discuss the Trump’s Afghan strategy.

The committee observed that to scapegoat Pakistan will not help in stabilizing Afghanistan. In fact, being its immediate neighbour, Pakistan has an abiding interest in peace and stability in Afghanistan.

“Pakistan had to manage the blowback of a protracted conflict in Afghanistan that resulted in deluge of refugees, flow of drugs and arms and more recently in the shape of terrorist safe havens in eastern Afghanistan from where anti-Pakistan terrorist groups continue to operate and launch attacks inside Pakistan,” the committee observed.

The fact remains that the complex issues and internal dynamics inside Afghanistan pose a grave challenge not only to Pakistan but to the broader region and the international community.

While noting the US commitment to continue to shoulder the burden of Afghanistan and reverse the expanding ungoverned spaces in the country, the National Security Committee observed that Pakistan has consistently supported all international efforts for a stable and peaceful Afghanistan and has also committed more than a billion US dollars for infrastructure and social development in that country.

“Over the years, Pakistan has worked with both the United States and Afghanistan to promote peace through a politically negotiated outcome which, in Pakistan’s view, remains the best option to bring stability to this war torn country,” the forum was told.