'For US, India a strategic partner but Pakistan only useful to clean up Afghan mess': Imran Khan

NEW DELHI: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that the US turns to his country only for vested interests, like cleaning the "mess" in Afghanistan. However Washington has a clear preference for India as a strategic partner.
"I think the Americans have decided that India is a strategic partner. Maybe that's why Pakistan is being treated differently. Pakistan is just considered to be useful only in the context of settling this mess which has been left behind after 20 years of trying to find a military solution when there was not one," Khan said during an interaction with foreign media on Wednesday night, reported Dawn.
Washington has been pressing Pakistan to use its influence over the Taliban to broker a peace deal as negotiations between the insurgents and Afghan government have stalled, and violence in Afghanistan has escalated sharply.Kabul and several Western governments say Pakistan's support for the insurgent group allowed it to weather the war.
A political settlement in Afghanistan was looking difficult under current conditions, Khan added.

Imran Khan said that he tried to persuade the Taliban leaders three or four months back when they had come to Pakistan for talks. However they are bent upon having Ashraf Ghani, who they consider a US puppet, removed as Afghan President before further talks.
He also said that the US is riled by Pakistan's growing closeness to China.
The Taliban escalated its offensive against the Afghan forces soon after US forces started withdrawing from Afghanistan following a peace deal between Washington and the Taliban in February last year.
(With agency inputs)