Joe Biden's State Department got busted pushing the Pakistani government to remove Imran Khan as prime minister because Khan did not support the war against Russian aggression in Ukraine.
The Intercept obtained a secret cable that showed Biden's team using carrots and sticks in its push against Khan, promising better relations if Khan was removed and lonely isolation if he was not.
The cable details the meeting between State Department officials, including Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu, and Pakistan's ambassador to the U.S., Asad Majeed Khan.
The discussion concluded, according to the document, with the Pakistani ambassador expressing his hope that the issue of the Russia-Ukraine war would not "Impact our bilateral ties." Lu told him that the damage was real but not fatal, and with Khan gone, the relationship could go back to normal.
" The Pakistani ambassador responded by expressing frustration with the lack of engagement from U.S. leadership: "This reluctance had created a perception in Pakistan that we were being ignored or even taken for granted."There was also a feeling that while the U.S. expected Pakistan's support on all issues that were important to the U.S., it did not reciprocate.
" The day after the meeting Khan's opponents in Parliament took the first step to remove Khan.
In May of this year, Imran Khan was arrested outside the High Court in the capital, Islamabad. "Khan's fate wasn't sealed at the time that this meeting took place, but it was tenuous," said Arif Rafiq, a non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute and specialist on Pakistan.
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