US militaristic approach in Afghanistan will not succeed: Asif

NEW YORK (APP): Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif said Trump administration’s militaristic approach in Afghanistan represented a failed policy, and he has called for talks with the Taliban to bring peace to the war-torn country.

Asif, who is heading to New York to participate in the 72nd session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), told The Wall Street Journal in Islamabad that he could not understand how the American military could succeed in Afghanistan now, when it had not during the surge under the Obama administration with a force eight times as large as the one now planned.

The foreign minister instead called for peace talks with the Taliban, which, he said, could be arranged if Washington worked with countries in the region that have influence over the Taliban. “They are pursuing a folly, a strategy that has already failed,” the foreign minister said in an interview with the Journal.

“Force will not solve any problem; it has not solved problems in the past.” Asif said he would tell UN members that “peace should return to this area and force is not the solution.”

Relations turned confrontational after President Donald Trump accused Pakistan in August of providing a haven for terrorists and then threatening to withhold aid if there wasn’t better cooperation.

Trump had said that a political settlement with elements of the Taliban was “perhaps” possible, but only after an effective US military campaign.