The United States has once again rejected PTI Chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan’s assertion that Washington was behind the ouster of his government, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.
In his daily briefing on Monday, US State Department Spokesperson Ned Price said “We’ve said many times that there is no truth to these allegations that United States was involved in regime change in Pakistan.”
Ned Price further said “We value longstanding cooperation between the United States and Pakistan and we won’t let propaganda, we won’t let misinformation or disinformation get in the way of an important bilateral relationship, including our valued bilateral partnership with Pakistan.”
Ned Price said “We’ve always viewed a prosperous and democratic Pakistan as critical to our interests. That remains unchanged.”
Replying to a question regarding next elections in Pakistan, Ned Price averred elections have not yet been scheduled, but we support the peaceful upholding of constitutional and democratic principles not just in Pakistan, around the world. “These are issues that we discuss with all of our partners around the world,” he added.
About Afghanistan, Ned Price said “We've been very clear that the United States and our partners around the world won't allow Afghanistan to become a safe haven for international terrorists who pose a threat to the United States, to our partners around the world.”
He said “The Taliban’s actions in sheltering the leader of al Qaeda in Kabul, they fly in the face of the Doha agreement and their repeated assurances to the world that they would not allow Afghan territory to be used by terrorists to threaten the security of other countries. Of course, we know how that story ended.”
The State Department spokesman said “President Biden has been very clear that we will maintain the capacity to act unilaterally if necessary to address any emergent terrorist threats or concerns when it comes to Afghanistan. Our Special Representative for Afghanistan Tom West recently met with the Taliban in Doha. They discussed a number of US interests including counterterrorism and will continue to engage with Taliban pragmatically and following the sheltering of Ayman al Zawahiri, the now deceased leader of Al-Qaeda, I think it's fair to say that the Taliban will have to earn the trust of the world and they'll only earn that through their own actions.”