Principal Deputy Spokesperson at US Department of State Vedant Patel said Tuesday that the United States has nothing to do with Zalmay Khalilzad’s statements about the political situation in Pakistan.At a press conference in Washington, Vedant Patel said Zalmay Khalilzad’s statement has nothing to do with our American foreign policy and his statements are in his personal capacity.

State Department Spokesperson Vedant Patel has clarified that former US envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad did not represent the country’s foreign policy and did not speak for the administration of President Jo Biden.Patel’s statement came in response to a question asked during a press briefing about Khalilzad’s recent statement regarding the political situation in Pakistan.

Earlier this month, Khalilzad — who had served as the special envoy for Afghan reconciliation under both the Trump and Biden administrations — had said that Pakistan was “underperforming and falling far behind” India.“Pakistan faces a triple crisis: political, economic, and security. Despite great potential, it is underperforming and falling far behind its archrival, India. It is time for serious soul-searching, bold thinking, and strategising,” he had remarked.

The former US ambassador had also criticised Pakistan for jailing its political leaders — particularly hinting at the recent police attempts to arrest PTI Chairman Imran Khan — and had proposed “two steps” to deal with the country’s challenges the first being to set a date for general elections in early June to “avert a meltdown”.

Commenting on the matter in the press briefing today, Patel said that Khalilzad was a private citizen. “Any social media activity or comments or tweets that you might reference, those are done in his private capacity, does not represent US foreign policy, and he does not speak for this administration,” he stated.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-INP