Washington's Lack Of Initiative To Interact With Islamabad Is Beyond His Understanding: Moeed

A senior official of Biden Administration has clarified that President Biden looks forward to speaking with Prime Minister Imran Khan when the time is right.

WASHINGTON: (UrduPoint/UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News-August 4^th, 2021) Pakistan’s National Security Adviser (NSA) Moeed Yusuf has said that why Washington was ignoring Islamabad was beyond his understanding.

Yusuf is currently in Washington to discuss Afghanistan situation as the US troop withdrawal from there is underway.

In an interview to Financial Times, NSA Moeed Yusuf said: “The president of the United States hasn’t spoken to the prime minister of such an important country who the US itself says is make-or-break in some cases, in some ways, in Afghanistan — we struggle to understand the signal, right?”.

He said: “We’ve been told every time that . . . [the phone call] will happen, it’s technical reasons or whatever. But frankly, people don’t believe it."

Yusuf further said, “If a phone call is a concession, if a security relationship is a concession, Pakistan has options,”. However, a senior Biden administration official clarified: “There are still a number of world leaders President Biden has not been able to speak with personally yet. He looks forward to speaking with Prime Minister Khan when the time is right,”.

Yusuf at present is in Washington to discuss the Afghan issue as the US troops are the pullout process from Afghanistan.

He is part of a delegation including the head of Pakistan’s ISI intelligence agency.

He further stated, “Let me be categorical if the prime minister had not instructed me and the delegation to be here, we won’t have been here,”.

Though the US has sought help from Pakistan to halt the Taliban advance while US troops are pulling out of Afghanistan, US President Joe Biden has not spoken over the issue with Prime Minister Imran Khan so far.

Earlier, he discussed the ongoing situation in Afghanistan with his US counterpart Jake Sullivan and highlighted the need for an urgent reduction in violence in the country. He also confirmed his meeting with Jake Sullivan: “Had a positive follow-up meeting with NSA @JakeSullivan46 today in Washington. Took stock of progress made since our Geneva meeting & discussed bilateral, regional and global issues of mutual interest,”.

Both agreed to sustain the momentum in the Pak-US bilateral cooperation, he concluded. Jake Sullivan also confirmed his constructive discussion with his Pakistani counterpart Moeed Yusuf.