Treat Pakistan as second North Korea if it doesn’t mend ways: Ex-US envoy

NEW DELHI: The triangular relationship between India, Pakistan, and the United States was one of the many subjects addressed by former US Ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad at a talk at the Observer Research Foundation in Delhi about his new book, The Envoy: From Kabul to the White House, My Journey Through a Turbulent World.

Khalilzad, who also served as US ambassador to Iraq and the UN, recently called for a “complete isolation policy” for Pakistan for the US. He reiterated today that the US must “suspend all aid, withdraw IMF support, and threaten it as if it were a second North Korea” if Pakistan did not “stop sponsoring radicalism and extremism.”

Ambassador of Afghanistan to India Shaida Mohammad Abdali was present at the event.

Khalilzad underlined that the mother of all problems for Afghanistan and its relationship with the US and India has been Pakistan’s “sanctuary issue.” On US failure to address terror threats from Pakistan beyond American contexts, Khalilzad said: “America is like a large ship. Once it has set course, it takes a while to change direction.”