A prominent U.S. newspaper says high-level talks designed to finish a diplomatic deadlock between the U.S. and Pakistan have led to failure because Pakistan has demanded an unconditional apology from Washington for an airstrike.
The Big apple Times says Marc Grossman, the U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, left Islamabad Friday night after two days of debate. The talks did not yield a remedy to the wear attributable to a U.S. airstrike in November that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers at the Afghanistan border.
The U.S. has refused to apologize for the strike and Pakistan has retaliated by removing NATO supply routes to Afghanistan. Both countries disagree in regards to the sequence of events inside the deadliest single cross-border attack of the ten-year war in Afghanistan.
The Times say the U.S. was "seriously debating" whether to mention "I'm sorry" to Pakistan, until April 15, when multiple, simultaneous attacks struck Kabul and other Afghan cities. U.S. military and intelligence officials say the attacks came from the Haqqani network, a terrorist group based in Pakistan's tribal belt in North Waziristan. Â
The Long island Times said the attacks "swung the raging debate" on whether U.S. President Barack Obama or another senior U.S. official should transcend the expression of regret Washington has already given, or apologize.
Pakistani officials say they can not re-open the NATO supply routes into Afghanistan without an apology. In return, the U.S. is withholding up to $3 billion of promised military aid.
The newspaper says the ongoing deadlock "doesn't bode well" for Pakistan's attendance at a NATO meeting in Chicago in three weeks, assuming it's even invited. Â
The Ny Times reports U.S. administration officials said Friday the stalemate wouldn't be resolved quickly.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP.
From WhatNewsToday.net
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