The United States is determined to once again push Islamabad to restore NATO supplies during a meeting here between senior US military officials and their Pakistani and Afghan counterparts later this week for talks at the “tripartite commission”.
“A trilateral meeting between military authorities of Pakistan, Afghanistan and ISAF, is scheduled to take place later this week, at Rawalpindi,” said an ISPR statement without giving the exact date of the meeting.
“It is in continuation of the series of regular meetings, held under the Tri Partite Commission framework. Talks will focus on enhancing efficiency of border coordination measures along the Pak-Afghan border and to improve multilateral mechanisms at operational and tactical levels,” the statement said. The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) delegation will be led by ISAF Commander General John Allen, while General Sher Muhammad Karimi, who is the chief of general staff of Afghan National Army, will head the Afghan delegation. Pakistani Army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani will head the Pakistani delegation participating in the meeting.
However, a security official seeking anonymity said the US military officials were expected to push Islamabad for reopening NATO supplies during the trilateral meeting, which was likely to take place in a day or two, adding that final date was being worked out. Pakistan blocked NATO supplies through its soil last year when the US/NATO aircraft attacked its border posts in Mohmand agency, killing 24 Pakistani soldiers. Pakistan also boycotted the Bonn Conference on Peace and Security in Afghanistan and also got the Shamsi airbase in Balochistan vacated, which was allegedly used by the CIA for drone strikes in the country’s tribal areas.
The parliament passed a set of recommendations on future ties with the United States, including a complete halt in drone strikes, and seeking unconditional apology from the US for attacking Pakistani border posts.
“The reopening of the NATO supplies still depends on the formal public apology on part of US/NATO and also the immediate release of well over a billion dollars by Washington to Islamabad under the Coalition Support Fund (CSF),” the official said.
He said that apart from the tripartite meeting being held here, the US and Pakistan were also engaged in hectic “behind the scene consultations” to break the impasse over NATO supplies, but added that a breakthrough was yet to be made.