Amid the frayed ties between the United States and Pakistan, a new report has revealed the issue of Afghanistan was not the cause of cold shoulder on the part of US President Joe Biden towards Pakistan.
Former Pakistan Interior Minister Abdul Rehman Malik said it was the country's partisan role in favour of former US President Donald Trump, during the 2020 US election campaign, that annoyed the Biden.
"During the US presidential election, a Pakistani businessman used the Pakistani Embassy in Washington as Trump's election office and when President Joe Biden found out about it, he got annoyed," Malik told The News International.
Malik advised Imran Khan to write a letter to the US president and clarify Pakistan's position. Former Pakistan Minister stated that "the ice had not melted yet" between the two countries, otherwise Biden would have talked to Khan, the News International reported.
Interestingly, US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman's recent visit to Pakistan overshadowed the desire for broad-based ties with Islamabad as it was focused on Afghanistan's current situation.
US State Department's statement on Shermans's engagements indicated the centrality of the Afghan issue in US-Pakistan talks.
These developments confirm what Sherman said at an event in Mumbai last Thursday, where she declared that Washington no longer sees itself building a "broad-based relationship" with Pakistan and that she was going to Islamabad with a "specific and narrow purpose" of talks on Afghanistan.
Despite differences on Afghanistan and other issues, the Biden administration will continue its engagement with Pakistan, according to media reports.
The United States will focus on four major points: Recognition of the Taliban government in Kabul, international sanctions on Afghanistan, access to the land-locked country and counter-terrorism cooperation, Dawn newspaper reported.
( With inputs from ANI )
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