Former US ambassador slams Pak-Afghan tension as 'the mother of all problems'

The former United States ambassador to Kabul, Zalmay Khalilzad has said that the biggest failure of the United States in Afghanistan is its inability to persuade Afghanistan and Pakistan to cooperate with each other.

Former US ambassador Khalilzad an interview to Voice of America described the Pak-Afghan tension as 'the mother of all problems' in the Pak-Afghan region.

The two countries need each other and they should cooperate with each other said the Afghanistan-born scholar, reports Dawn.

The United States did not succeed in bringing Afghanistan and Pakistan together after 9/11 and it had not succeeded still. "This is going on so many years later. And I think this is the mother, in my view, of the problems of Afghanistan."

Khalilzad said the main reason why the United States could not achieve more in Afghanistan was because Pakistan created sanctuaries for the Taliban.

Pakistan has consistently denied that it allows militant groups to organise and plot attacks from its territory.

The Voice of America (VOA) reports also included results of a recent survey of Afghan public opinion conducted by the Broadcasting Board of Governors and the Gallup news agency which included results of a recent survey of Afghan public opinion.

The survey showed that Afghan citizens have a very low opinion of Pakistan. The respondents gave Pakistan a favourability rating of 3.7 per cent, the bottom of the list faring even worse than the militant Islamic State group, which received a 5.8 favourability rating.