US again rejects Imran’s ‘cypher’ narrative

State Dept spokesperson says issue of rights violations in India raised with Modi

ISLAMABAD:

The State Department has reiterated its earlier stance that claims by former prime minister Imran Khan regarding the US cypher that he had touted as a US conspiracy behind removal of his government last year, were not “accurate”.

State Department spokesperson Mathew Miller told a media briefing on Tuesday that US President Joe Biden spoke about human rights issues in India during his news conference after his meeting with visiting Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

At the briefing, Miller was told Secretary of State Antony Blinken saved President Biden from “embarrassment on a state dinner with Modi” when he was asked by a reporter about “overlooking human rights violations” in India.

“We always raise human rights issues and human rights concerns … at senior levels in our engagements with foreign governments,” Miller replied, according to the text of the briefing available on the State Department’s website.

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“You saw the president at the news conference to which you are referring speak on human rights issues in India. So we will continue to raise those issues privately, and we’ll continue to speak to them publicly,” Miller added.

He was then asked about a recent interview of Imran to the Voice of America, in which the PTI chief said that the cypher was a reality. “I will just continue to reiterate that those claims are not accurate,” Miller said in terse reply.

The spokesperson evaded another question about disclosing the notes taken during the conversation of Assistant Secretary Donald Lu with then Pakistani ambassador, saying: “We are really going down a rabbit hole here, I think. We’ve spoken on this before.”