The US State Department has said that the leaked diplomatic cable, or “cypher”, documenting conversations between then Pakistan Ambassador to Washington and Biden administration officials last March, show that Washington was concerned about Imran Khan's "policy choices".
The leaked cable was reported by US publication The Intercept on Wednesday. The publication said that the cable was leaked to its reporters by a Pakistani military official.
The cypher gives details of the meeting held on March 7, 2022, attended by Donald Lu, the Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, and Asad Majeed Khan, who was then Islamabad’s Ambassador to Washinton.
The meeting took place barely two weeks after then Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan paid a visit to Moscow to hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Significantly, a day before this meeting, Khan reportedly addressed a rally where he categorically rejected west-led calls to criticize Moscow over its special military operation in Ukraine.
“What do you think of us? That we are your slaves and that we will do whatever you ask of us? We are friends of Russia, and we are also friends of the United States. We are friends of China and Europe. We are not part of any alliance,” the Intercept quoted Khan as telling the rally.
The diplomatic cable quotes Lu as warning the Pakistani Ambassador that Islamabad would be marginalized by western allies if it continued with its "aggressively neutral stand" on Ukraine.
“I think if the no-confidence vote against the Prime Minister succeeds, all will be forgiven in Washington because the Russia visit is being looked at as a decision by the Prime Minister... Otherwise, I think it will be tough going ahead," Lu reportedly told the Pakistani diplomat.
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan at the Kremlin in Moscow on February 24, 2022.
© AFP 2023 MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV
US Concedes the Diplomatic Cable Is Nearly Accurate
Matthew Miller, the US State Department spokesman, hasn’t rejected the report citing the leaked cable.
“Close-ish. I cannot speak to the veracity,” the official told a press briefing, when asked by a journalist if the substance of this report and the purported Pakistani cable back to Islamabad is accurate.
But Miller maintained that the cable still didn’t imply if the US wanted Khan to leave office.
“So, without stipulating whether it’s an accurate comment or not, if you take all of the comments in context that were reported in that – in that purported cable, I think what they show is the United States Government expressing concern about the policy choices that the prime minister was taking. It is not in any way the United States Government expressing a preference on who the leadership of Pakistan ought to be,” Miller told the press briefing.
The diplomatic cable has been leaked just days after Khan was arrested in a corruption case after being sentenced to three years of imprisonment by a trial court in Islamabad. After being arrested on August 5, Khan said that he had been denied a “fair trial”.
Later, the Election Commission of Pakistan disqualified Khan from holding a public office for five years.
Pakistan is scheduled to hold an election in the coming months, with the country’s National Assembly ending its official term on Wednesday.