Top brass discuss strategy for talks with US

Civil and military top brass on Wednesday night fine-tuned the strategy for talks to be held with US representative Marc Grossman who has arrived here to discuss Pak-US relations scheduled to be held today (Thursday).
At a high-level meeting held at the PM’s House under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, the country’s top leadership decided that NATO supply routes would not be reopened as the US administration was reluctant to offer formal apology to Pakistan on the Salala checkpost attacks, Pakistan Today has learnt reliably.
A source confided that the meeting decided that the NATO supplies’ matter would be put on hold until the upcoming visit of US by Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar and her talks with her US counterpart, Hillary Clinton. Grossman would hold separate meetings with President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Gilani, Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar and Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani today. Grossman and Jilani are also likely to address joint press conference.
Grossman arrives for talks US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Marc Grossman landed in Islamabad on Wednesday night in an effort to reboot ties between Pakistan and the US. “This is a bilateral consultation about how we can improve our relationship along all of the lines that have been difficult,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters.
Nuland declined to go into detail about whether Grossman would discuss all of Pakistan’s demands but said: “I think he’s open to working through the results of the parliamentary review with the Pakistani government.” “We had been waiting for that review to be concluded before we could fully re-engage. So this is our opportunity to do that,” she said.
A number of other US officials have visited Pakistan in recent weeks in hopes of rebuilding ties, including top military commander General Martin Dempsey, aid chief Rajiv Shah and Deputy Secretary of State Tom Nides. Separately, the United States refrained from criticizing Pakistan for testing a nuclear-capable intermediate range missile on Wednesday, less than a week after a similar launch by Pakistan’s arch-rival India. Nuland said the United States would offer “the same message that we gave at the time of the Indian test — that we urge all nuclear-capable states to exercise restraint regarding nuclear and missile capabilities.”