Gen. Mattis' visit postponed due to Pak internal situation: US

Pakistan

Gen. Mattis' visit postponed due to Pak internal situation: US

Close

US State Department says Pakistan has not refused CENTCOM chief Gen. James Mattis' visit.

24 December,2011 03:36 am

US State Department says Pakistan has not refused CENTCOM chief Gen. James Mattis visit for briefing on Nato airstrike investigation report.While briefing the media Friday, State Departments deputy spokesman, Mark Toner said I dont agree that Pakistan has refused to entertain the visit offer of US Central Commands (CENTCOM) chief Gen. Mattis for briefing on investigation report of the November 26 Nato attack in Mohmand.We believe the timing was not right and Pakistan decided to postpone it. There are some internal political dynamics in Pakistan right now, so they felt it better to postpone the visit of Gen. Mattis to a later date, he stressed.On a question, he said new date of the visit has not been decided yet, but it has not been cancelled. Pakistan, he said, has been briefed already about the Nato investigation report, but not sure if a full copy has been provided to them or not.This is going to take some time for Pakistan to look at the report and study it before we can know of their response, he suggested adding that the US administration had seen some initial public comments on the reports from Pakistani officials.Regarding compensation to the bereaved families of Pakistani soldiers, who lost their lives in Nato airstrike, he conceded that the US is offering compensation payments to Pakistan for the loss of life of 26 soldiers through Departments of Defense, who have more details about the timing and the amount.On the contacts with Pakistani leadership after the Nato strike investigation report, he said that the US ambassador to Pakistan, Cameron Munter has met with Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik while ambassador Marc Grossman is also in touch with Pakistani officials. However, Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton has not spoken to anybody in Pakistan as yet about the report because she is on foreign travel in Prague, he responded.We are going to continue to offer briefings to senior Pakistani officials and the report will also be made public at some point. You know, we have been very forthright about the contents of the investigation report and we are going to engage with Pakistanis as we go forward, he assured.On reports of political turmoil in Pakistan and the rumours that Army wants to oust President Zardari, he said we believe in and support the democratic process in Pakistan. We also support the constitution, rule of law and will of the people of Pakistan. However, we believe that this is a matter for the Pakistani people to resolve within their own political process, he argued.On a query about 2011 being the most-troubled year in Pak-US relationship, he said it is difficult to talk in absolute terms or use generalisations about this relationship. We have been pretty candid in saying that there have been some significant obstacles throughout this year in the relationship with Pakistan. But at each juncture, we have tried to address those challenges and re-committed ourselves to working with Pakistan, he pointed out.Toner said that the US will continue to do that because we believe that we need to work with Pakistan and the issues and challenges we face are too important.”We are constantly working to build that closer cooperation with Pakistan and acknowledge that this relationship needs to work, he stressed.When asked to predict the nature of relationship in 2012, he said it is hard to say what is going to happen next year. Speaking on behalf of US, I can say that we desire a closer and more productive relationship with Pakistan, both militarily as well as politically, he emphasised.- Contributed by Awais Saleem, Dunya News correspondent in Washington, DC