Afghan crisis due to US policy failure to deal with 'duplicitous' Pakistan, says top American Senator

WASHINGTON: An influential US Senator has said that America's "failure" to have an effective policy to deal with a "duplicitous" Pakistan is one of the key reasons for the current situation in Afghanistan.

Pakistan is accused of facilitating the Taliban rebellion, which ultimately resulted in the capturing of Afghanistan after being ousted from power about 20 years ago.

Expressing deep concern about the evolving humanitarian crisis in the war-torn nation, Senator Jack Reed, Chairman of the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee, on Tuesday said, “There are no easy answers to how we got here. I would argue that several factors over the last 20 years of war in Afghanistan have shaped this outcome and must be considered as we move forward and engage in future conflicts.”

“These factors," he said, "include a disastrous pivot to a war of choice in Iraq, a failure to have an effective policy to deal with a duplicitous Pakistan, a failure of mission creep from counter-terrorism; and a lack of ability to build an effective Afghan government and security forces.”

These failures were compounded by the failures of the Doha agreement by former president Donald Trump which won the United States very little, the Democratic Senator said.

The Afghan crisis also happened due to the "failures of intelligence, diplomacy and a lack of imagination as we transitioned military forces from the country", he said.

The longstanding war in Afghanistan reached a watershed moment on Sunday when the Taliban insurgents closed in on Kabul before entering the city and took over the presidential palace, forcing embattled President Ashraf Ghani to flee the country.

The Afghan crisis, Reed said, is "not a Democratic or a Republican problem.

These failures have been manifesting over four presidential administrations of both political parties”.

The Senate Armed Services Committee will hold hearings on what went wrong in Afghanistan and lessons learned to avoid repeating those mistakes, he added.

Meanwhile, Congressman Mike Waltz demanded that the US should freeze aid to Pakistan.

He also said that there are three strategic goals for China engaging the Taliban.

The goals are, he said, being a partner with Pakistan against India; ensure that the Taliban doesn't cooperate with the Uighurs in Western China or provide sanctuary in Afghanistan; and access to USD 1 trillion worth of critical minerals in Afghanistan.