Pakistan will help extricate US from Afghanistan: Donald Trump

US President Donald Trump, in his meeting with Pakistan premier Imran Khan on Monday at the White House, voiced optimism that Khan could help broker a political settlement to end the nearly 18-year-old US war in Afghanistan and held out the possibility of restoring aid to Islamabad.

Khan's trip to the US is strategically important for the beleagured nation as it hopes to reset its strained ties with the US.

Following their talk, Trump said that the United States is working with Islamabad to find a way out of the war in Afghanistan. Khan, accompanied by Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lt Gen Faiz Hameed and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi among others, told Trump there was only one solution for Afghanistan and that a peace deal with the Taliban was closer than it had ever been. He said he hoped in the coming days to be able to urge the Taliban to continue the talks.

Trump also spoke of possibly restoring $1.3 billion in American that he had cut last year, depending upon the results of the meeting. Claiming that the two nations' relationship had improved, Trump said, "They were really, I think, subversive. They were going against us. Now, they are going to help us extricate ourselves."

Meanwhile, on Sunday, Khan faced protests as he addressed a large gathering at Capital One Arena in Washington. His speech was disrupted by activists from Balochistan, who raised anti-Pakistan slogans as the Pakistan premier spoke.

with inputs from agencies