In-focus

Pakistan

Unresolved issues hamper NATO supply routes resumption: US

Dunya News

The US has said that some unresolved issues hamper NATO supply routes resumption.

White House spokesman, Jay Carney has said Monday that the decision to withdraw the team negotiating on resumption of NATO supply routes was taken because most of the technical consultations had already completed.“Most of the technical arrangements have been worked out, but there are still several issues outstanding. We believe that all can be resolved, and we remain ready to conclude this agreement as soon as Pakistan is ready,” he remarked.“I think they’ve been working on this. We saw it as the right move to withdraw. Those technical consultations have been completed largely, and so it was determined that they could return home,” he opined.“It certainly remains our goal to complete an agreement as soon as possible, and I would note that the Pakistani government has said the same thing,” he stated.When asked when the US team is likely to be ready, he said this decision was based on Pakistan’s willingness. “We are ready to send officials back to Islamabad when the Pakistani government is ready to conclude the agreement,” he said.When his attention was drawn towards US Secretary of Defense, Leon Panetta’s comments last week, in which he had said we’re reaching the limits on our patience with Pakistan, Carney termed the relationship important but complicated. “Our relationship with Pakistan, as you know, remains both extremely important and extremely complicated.”“Because it is so important, we devote a lot of time and effort to working on that relationship and discussing all the key issues that are involved in that relationship and this is one of them,” he explained.On a question as to what was the holdup in the agreement, he refused to offer any specific details. “I think there are still some remaining issues that need to be resolved, but they do not require the kind of technical people that were involved in the GLOC consultations for the past 45 days,” he pointed out.Earlier, Pentagon spokesman, George Little had said that the decision to call the negotiators back home was taken because there was no deal on NATO supply routes in sight. “Some of the team has left Pakistan. We expect the other members of the team to leave soon unless circumstances change,” he informed.He, however, clarified that this didn’t mean that the US was shutting the door on these negotiations. “This is not to be taken as a sign of our unwillingness to continue the dialogue with the Pakistanis on this issue,” he emphasised.Little, however, said that the US team was ready to go back to Pakistan for resumption of talks on NATO supply routes, in case Pakistan asked for it.He also confirmed that Assistant Secretary of Defense, Peter Levoy, during the recent visit to Islamabad, was refused a meeting with army chief, Gen Ashfaq Pervez KayaniIn another briefing, State Department spokesperson, Victoria Nuland said there was some progress on the technical level, but these consultations were not complete. “The team’s been out there for some six weeks, so it is going to come back and take a break at home and debrief,” she said.When asked whether the demand of apology from Pakistan was really the sticking point in this case, she refused to divulge any details. “There’s no question that although we’ve made some progress, this remains difficult and we’re not finished,” she asserted.“We’ve had some agreements in some areas, but it’s relatively clear what the issues of disagreement that still need to be worked on. And I think both sides are going to take some counsel, and then we’ll see what we can get back to,” she hoped.She declined that there were any timelines in this negotiations process. “I don’t think you can ever predict in a negotiation the speed or issues that are going to come up. There are a number of issues here that have been difficult, and we haven’t made any secret of that,” she conceded.- Contributed by Awais Saleem, Dunya News correspondent in Washington, DC