Pak-US talks fail to break the deadlock

After a five-month suspension, Pakistan and the United States resumed formal bilateral talks on Thursday, but could not make any progress in ending the ‘stalemate’ over the resumption of stalled NATO supplies owing to Washington’s refusal to offer an unconditional public apology over the November strikes by its aircraft on Pakistani border posts that killed 24 soldiers.
US Special Envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan Marc Grossman, who landed in Islamabad on Wednesday evening in an effort to mend the fractured ties, held formal talks with Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, who was assisted by Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani and other senior officials of the Foreign Office.
Before the talks, the US envoy also had a vital meeting with Army Chief General Ashfaq Kayani in Rawalpindi, where like at the Foreign Office talks, he asked for an early restoration of NATO supplies, which were blocked by Islamabad in the wake of NATO airstrikes. The Pakistani leadership refused to accept the US demand for restoring NATO supplies before a public apology over the incident.
At a joint press conference with Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani later, Ambassador Grossman avoided offering an apology over NATO airstrikes, but expressed regret and sorrow over the assault. He again offered condolence on behalf of the United States over the incident.
He said, “Efforts will be made that such incidents do not happen in future as both Pakistan and the United States are partners in the war against terror and they have common enemy and need common strategy to fight this menace.”
He said, “The US respects the sovereignty of Pakistan and is willing to improve its ties in all fields.” He said the meeting with Foreign Minister Khar and other Pakistani leadership showed the American intention to improve Pakistan-US relations.
He said, “Washington respects the Pakistani parliamentary review on new contours of relations and the seriousness with which it was carried out.”
Grossman said after the completion of the parliamentary review, the task was how to move forward on advancing the most important relationship between the two countries.
He said the US was ready for talks on re-opening the supply lines and clearing outstanding payments to Pakistan to meet the expenses of military operations in its Tribal Areas to fight the Taliban and al Qaeda militants.
“We are ready to get to the work. We want to work to reopen the ground lines of communication. We want to discuss several outstanding claims for the Coalition Support Fund (CSF).”
“The US official was plainly told that the Obama administration must come up with a public apology over airstrikes on Pakistani outposts and killing of two dozen soldiers. Ambassador Grossman was non-committal on this demand by Pakistan’s civilian and military leadership and hence the ‘deadlock’ in relations couldn’t be done away with,” said a Pakistani official privy to Grossman’s talks at the Foreign Office and his meeting with the army chief.
He said there was no settlement of the other contentious issue of drone strikes in the Tribal Areas by CIA, with the US not extending any assurance to stop the assaults in response to a demand by Pakistani authorities for cessation of the attacks by American spy planes. In an interview to a foreign wire service, Foreign Minister Khar said the US was not listening to Pakistani demands of halting drone attacks.
The official said, “Some proposals like reducing the number of drone strikes, defining the targeted areas in the Tribal Areas and having intelligence input from Pakistani secret agencies before the strikes were also discussed but there was no understanding on the issue in Thursday’s talks,” the official said. Nonetheless, he said Grossman would be in Islamabad until today (Friday) and would be having more meetings with Pakistani officials, so efforts would be made to end the stalemate and move forward on conflicting matters to resume full-fledged counter-terrorism cooperation. In Thursday’s talks, the Pakistani side also stressed on the need for ties on the basis of mutual respect to each other sovereignty.