“As far as I’m concerned it’s over, it’s behind me,” he said of the alleged conspiracy in an interview with the Financial Times. “The Pakistan I want to lead must have good relationships with everyone, especially the United States.”

The statement contradicts the PTI chief’s earlier claims of a foreign conspiracy led by the US administration against his government, which he started when the political developments after the tabling of the no-confidence motion picked pace. He also started a campaign “Ghulami Namanzoor” against the backdrop of his ouster and described the incumbent rulers as an “imported government”.

Many analysts believe that Imran and his PTI are the most likely winner of the next general election, following a surge in his popularity thanks in part to his anti-American rhetoric.

The US administration and the Sharif-led government have denied such accusations multiple times. But, Imran had been making the same allegations in his addresses to party workers.

“Our relationship with the US has been as of a master-servant relationship, or a master-slave relationship, and we’ve been used like a hired gun. But for that I blame my own governments more than the US,” said Imran, who survived an apparent assassination attempt earlier this month.

A gunman near his truck laden container shot Imran multiple times in the leg during the Azadi March in Wazirabad on November 3. The former prime minister, whose leg is in a cast, has accused Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, and a senior military officer of the attempt on his life.

The government and military have strongly denied such allegations. According to Imran, he got information about this attempt from people within the agencies who are “appalled by what is going on in this country”.

Ali Sarwar Naqvi, a former Pakistani diplomat, was of the view that Pakistan’s relations with the US would “remain under stress” if Imran ever returns to power.

Imran also admitted that a visit to Moscow a day before the Ukraine invasion in February, for which his government claimed the US had reservations, was “embarrassing” but said the trip was organised months in advance.