Trump's Afghan strategy poised to fail: PM Abbasi

NEW YORK: Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has stressed the need for a political settlement in Afghanistan, saying US President Donald Trump's strategy for America's longest-running war in that country will meet the same fate as the plans of his predecessors: 'Failure'.

"From day one we have been saying very clearly the military strategy in Afghanistan has not worked and it will not work," Abbasi said in an interview with Bloomberg News, an international news agency based in New York.

There has to be a "political settlement," he said in the interview that took place in Karachi on Saturday night.

"That's the bottom-line," the prime minister added.

Abbasi said while his government supported the fight against terrorists it would not let the war in Afghanistan, with which it shares a 1,550-mile border, spill into Pakistan.

"We do not intend to allow anybody to fight Afghanistan's battle on Pakistan's soil," Abbasi said during the interview at the former home of the nation's founder Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, while he was on a visit to Karachi.

"Whatever has to happen in Afghanistan should be happening in Afghanistan," he said.

"Pakistan doesn't harbour terrorists."

Abbasi said Pakistan was willing to work with all countries, including India, from which Trump sought help to develop Afghanistan's economy, to achieve regional stability.

Still, he added the Afghan government should be "owning" the issue and dealing with the Taliban.

"If they require our support, our support is available," he said.

"Our support is unconditional as far as terrorism is concerned."