What’s At Stake in Pakistan

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: I guess, first and foremost, I don’t know whether you heard Sarah Chayes, but most of the world does believe and knows that the Taliban were a very close product of your country. Do you regret that? And 20 years later, do you wish your country had done something different?

MALEEHA LODHI, FORMER PAKISTANI AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED STATES: I think, Christiane, we have to put this question in its proper perspective. I can understand the instinct to blame somebody for what has been a U.S.- led Western debacle in Afghanistan; 20 years of a war waged by the most powerful army in the world led to the outcome that you have seen with President Biden saying there is no military solution. And he’s absolutely right. That’s what my country said at the very start of this war, that there would never be a military solution. And as for Pakistan’s role, yes, we kept our channel of communication open with the Taliban. And if we hadn’t, Pakistan would not have been able to play the constructive role that it played in helping in the sequence of events that led to the Doha agreement between the United States and the Taliban. Plus, the fact that the U.S. military had no casualties, no combat casualties for a year-and-a-half since the signing of the Doha agreement was also in large part due to Pakistan’s role in persuading and coaxing and nudging the Taliban towards negotiations and towards a political solution. So, I can tell you Pakistan has the most to gain from peace and stability in Afghanistan. And, as you said, it also has the greatest to fear if Afghanistan descends into more fighting, another bout of civil war.

AMANPOUR: All right.

LODHI: So, here we are. And I think it’s important — it’s important not to keep obsessing about the past, but to focus on the future and to see how the international community can contribute to peace and stability.