KABUL - Continued support of Pakistan to the Taliban and other extremists could end up with a strategic blow to the United States and "Washington needs Islamabad to change its behavior and change it now".

Zalmai Khalilzad, a former US ambassador to Afghanistan, writes in an article (Our Deceitful Friends) published on 25th September in the News Week magazine that Pakistan helps the Taliban and we need to rethink who the enemy is.

Mr Khalilzad said in the article: "If Pakistan fails to cooperate, Washington must cut off assistance to its military and intelligence services; bolster Pakistani civil society and civilian institutions; increase cross-border attacks against insurgent targets; and get backing from a whole host of states to bring pressure to bear on Islamabad-isolating or containing it if necessary."

He writes that, either way and even if the US pulls out its troops from Afghanistan, Washington will embrace success in Afghan mission.

"Even as the US draws down forces, it has the leverage necessary to succeed. Let us not have a decade of effort go to waste now. Inducing Pakistan to cooperate will be the difference between victory and defeat," Mr Khalilzad writes.