Zardari urges Trump to do what Obama 'never did'

Former president says Obama never had proper interaction with any Pakistani chief executive

Former president Asif Ali Zardari has urged US President Donald Trump to seize an opportunity missed by the Obama administration and appoint an envoy for the South Asia region.

The Pakistan Peoples Party co-chairperson urged Trump to appoint a high-level envoy to South Asia, as soon as possible, and work towards defeating terrorism -- something former US President Barack Obama failed to do. “[Do] what [President] Obama never did — Obama never had proper interaction with any Pakistani chief executive,” he said.

Zardari further urged critics to give him a chance to make his mark in South Asia rather than "dismiss him out of hand".

During an interview with The Washington Times, Zardari who recently attended Trump's inaugural ceremony, said, “It’s too early...wait for the first 90 days at least, and then we see how the cookie crumbles, or talks and walks."



“The man has managed to get a majority in states where it was never imagined that the Democrats could lose,” he said. “So how do we underestimate him?”

He added that the US president must play the role of a moderator between Afghanistan and Pakistan as the wars against terrorism in both countries are the same. “We’re losing the battle of minds against extremists in Afghanistan, we’ve lost it in Pakistan, we’ve lost it in Syria, we’ve lost it in Yemen, we’ve lost it in Iraq, we’ve lost it Libya, we’ve lost it everywhere,” Zardari said, 'requesting' Trump to contact regional, as well as world leaders and draft a new policy regarding the issue.



“With the world being as it is, with the mindset of terrorism as the new war in the world,” he said, “the least [the US. can do is sit down with us and have a long, drawn-out strategy, which we can work on together to fight this mindset.”

This article originally appeared on The Washington Times.