Time to move on

On the first day of talks with a US team led by Deputy Special Representative Tom West and top USAID humanitarian official Sarah Charles, Taliban’s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Mutaqqi gave the US a rather blunt advice to not ‘destabilise’ the regime. At the same time he said that there would be no cooperation with Washington on containing the Islamic State-Khorasan.

It seems as though it is the cornerstone of the US State department's policy to keep the Afghan region in turmoil. After the most historically embarrassing US withdrawals from Vietnam, then Iraq and now Afghanistan, it is high time for US policymakers to evaluate their policies before initiating any major regional realignments. One hopes that after the Afghan debacle, the US will let Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Middle Eastern countries live in peace.

Abid Mahmud Ansari

Islamabad