US to permanently close its Peshawar Consulate: report

The United States has announced that it will permanently close its consulate in Peshawar, The Independent reported on Thursday.

According to the British publication, the consulate is the US’ closest diplomatic mission to the Afghan border and was a primary operations and logistics point at the time of its invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

The US State Department notified Congress of its intent to close the consulate, saying that it would save $7.5 million per year without undermining the advancement of US national interests in Pakistan.

According to The Independent, a copy of the notification was obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday.

“The move has been under consideration for more than a year since the Trump administration began downsizing nearly all federal agencies and is not related to the Iran war,” The Independent said.

The joint US-Israeli war against Iran, launched on Feb 28, sparked protests in various cities, and caused the US Consulate in Karachi to suspend its operations after an incident where 11 people were killed.

According to the notification, of the $3m the State Department will spend to close down the Peshawar consulate, more than half will pay for the relocation of armoured trailers that had served as temporary office space. The rest will go toward moving equipment and furniture, as well as the consulate’s motor pool fleet, to the US Embassy in Islamabad and the Karachi and Lahore consulates, it added.

“Because of its proximity to the Afghan border and Kabul, the Peshawar consulate had been a key jumping-off facility for overland travel into Afghanistan, as well as a point of contact for American citizens in northwestern Pakistan and Afghan nationals seeking US assistance,” The Independent said.

It added that the notification said consular services for American citizens and others would be handled by the embassy in Islamabad about 184 kilometres away.

“The closure would not adversely affect the mission’s ability to advance core US national interests, assist US citizens, or to conduct adequate oversight of foreign assistance programs because all of those functions would continue to be performed by US Embassy Islamabad,“ it said.

Earlier this month, the US State Department said it had ordered non-emergency personnel at American consulates in Karachi and Lahore and their families to leave Pakistan due to security concerns in the wake of the protests.

In a subsequent travel advisory, the US mission said the consulate in Peshawar had temporarily suspended operations.