Islamabad (Pakistan): All regional stakeholders expected a "responsible withdrawal" of the US forces from Afghanistan, a top Pakistani military official said. "The responsible withdrawal was supposed to be after a peaceful transition, but the withdrawal happened in a bit hasty manner," Xinhua news agency quoted Director-General of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Major General Babar Iftikhar as saying on Saturday to a local news channel.
The US army is in the process of leaving Afghanistan and the withdrawal is expected to be completed by August 31, following which all regional stakeholders have to sit together and find a solution to the Afghan issue in consultation with the Afghan leadership, he added.
Answering a query about the future presence of the US in the region, the official said regional powers are "very well capable of solving Afghan issue if we sit down together", and there is no need for Washington in this matter. Talking about his country's role to solve the Afghan issue, Iftikhar said that Pakistan tried to help solve the Afghan issue sincerely and it did everything within its capacity to facilitate the peace process.