Pakistani PM Khan likely to visit US next month - local media

Arab News Pakistan
A US State Department contractor adjusts a Pakistan national flag before a meeting between US Secretary of State John Kerry and Pakistan's Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on the sidelines of the White House Summit on Countering Violent Extremism at the State Department in Washington on February 19, 2015. (REUTERS)
  • Trump invited Khan in June but he could not go due to budget session, foreign minister Qureshi tells reporters
  • Seventh round of talks between US and Taliban kick off today to seek negotiated settlement to Afghan civil war

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan is likely to visit the United States early next month, a local Pakistani newspaper reported on Saturday, just days after the Pakistani foreign minister told reporters US President Donald Trump had invited the prime minister for a visit in June, which he could not undertake due to the budget session.
Speaking to reporters in Islamabad on Saturday, Shah Mahmood Qureshi had said talks between Khan and Trump would focus on “important regional matters,” Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper reported. The statement was a veiled reference to ongoing talks between the US and the Taliban, the seventh round of which will resume in Doha today, Saturday, to find a negotiated settlement to Afghanistan’s lengthy war.
The ongoing discussions will focus on working out a timeline for the withdrawal of US-led troops from Afghanistan and on a Taliban guarantee militants won’t plot attacks from Afghan soil. Two other main issues in the process are a cease-fire and talks between the rival Afghan sides — the insurgents and the Western-backed government. The Taliban have long refused to talk to the Afghan government, denouncing it as foreign “puppet”, and fighting has seen no let-up.
Washington has also been pushing Pakistan to use its influence with the Taliban, many of whose senior leaders have sought refuge in Pakistan over the decades, to bring them to the table for talks and convince them to open direct dialogue with the Kabul government. The Pakistan government says its sway over the insurgency has waned in recent years. 
Pakistan insists it wants to help the Afghan peace process, and last week it hosted a meeting of senior Afghan politicians and members of the Taliban as part of an intra-Afghan dialogue. President Ashraf Ghani also visited Pakistan this week on a two-day trip to try and bridge mistrust and seek Islamabad’s support in opening communication links with the Taliban.