The United States has messed up the situation in Afghanistan, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan told PBS News Hour, EurAsia Daily reported
“I think the US has really messed up things in Afghanistan. People like me who have been saying there is no military solution there, who know the history of Afghanistan, have been called ‘anti-US’. I was personally called Taliban Khan”, – the prime minister said.
In his view, the United States should have opted for a political solution much earlier, when there were still up to 150,000 NATO troops in Afghanistan.
“But once they reduced the number of troops to 10,000, and then when they gave a date for withdrawal, the Taliban thought they had won. And so it is still very difficult to get them to compromise”, – Khan said.
The Pakistani prime minister underlined that the Taliban would inevitably become part of the government, but that every effort should be made to avoid a civil war in Afghanistan which would greatly increase the flow of refugees into neighbouring countries.