National Security Adviser Moeed Yusuf’s remarks, during an interview with the Financial Times in Washington, that Pakistan has “other options” in case US President Joe Biden continues to ignore the country’s leadership, seem to have kicked up quite a diplomatic storm. It’s a little unfair that Islamabad should find itself in the eye of the storm just because the security situation in the region seems to have reached a boiling point. The centre of everybody’s troubles for now is definitely Afghanistan as the Taliban defy widespread concern and seem bent upon storming the capital and sending the present government packing. All that has sucked in a number of regional as well as international powers and suddenly everybody including the United States, China, Iran, Russia and even India is a stakeholder. Pakistan has already started facing the biggest bulk of the problems as thousands of refugees have fled the fighting and are headed for our borders. That will mean more refugees to house and feed when our own economy is far from the strongest it has been or can be. It also means that the prospect of anti-Pakistan terrorists making their way back into the country has become very real very quickly. NSA Moeed Yusuf was no doubt alluding to the fact that President Biden hasn’t yet so much as talked to Prime Minister Imran Khan on the telephone even though Pakistan is, and has been, the frontline state when it comes to matters concerning Afghanistan. One can only hope that this statement was well-calculated and thought through; and not a sudden spur-of-the-moment reaction to a tough question because Pakistan has put in more than its share of blood and gold into the so-called international fight against terrorism. There should, in fact, be a credible think tank to weigh all positions that the foreign office and the national security establishment can and should take on matters of very serious concern for the country and the region. And nothing has been nearly as complicated or as volatile as the present situation in Afghanistan. Hopefully it won’t take any more unexpected statements to attract Washington’s attention. *