The United States “really messed it up” in Afghanistan, said Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, questioning the American motive for the 2001 invasion of the country in the first place. He said this during an interview with Judy Woodruff on PBS NewsHour, an American news programme.

Khan added a political settlement, including the Taliban, is the only good solution to Afghanistan’s situation.

The US and its NATO allies, after a deal with the Taliban, agreed to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan in return for a commitment by the militants that they would prevent extremist groups from operating in areas they control.

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American troops will be out of the country by August 31. From 1996, the Taliban ruled Afghanistan by brute force and in 2001, the US invasion toppled their government after September 11, 2001, terror attacks in America.

Khan criticised the US for trying to “look for a military solution in Afghanistan, when there never was one”. “And people like me who kept saying that there’s no military solution, who know the history of Afghanistan, we were called — people like me were called anti-American. I was called Taliban Khan,” Khan said.

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He lamented that by the time the US realised that there was no military solution in Afghanistan, “unfortunately, the bargaining power of the Americans or the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation forces) had gone”.

When the interviewer asked whether he thought the Taliban resurgence was a positive development for Afghanistan, the prime minister reiterated that the only good outcome would be a political settlement, “which is inclusive”.” Obviously, Taliban (will be) part of that government,” he added.

Khan described the “worst-case scenario” as being one where Afghanistan descends into a civil war. “From Pakistan’s point of view, that is the worst-case scenario, because we then … we face two scenarios, one (of them being) a refugee problem,” he said.”

Already, Pakistan is hosting over three million Afghan refugees. And what we fear is that a protracted civil war would [bring] more refugees. And our economic situation is not such that we can have another influx,” he said.

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Elaborating on the second problem, he expressed concerns that the fallout of a potential civil war across the border could “flow into Pakistan”.

Khan said that 70,000 Pakistanis had died in the aftermath of the US war in Afghanistan, even when “Pakistan had nothing to do with what happened [in New York on September 11, 2001].”