Pakistan Signals NATO Supply Routes Should be Reopened

Posted May 14th, 2012 at 10:40 am (UTC-5)
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Pakistan has signaled that NATO supply lines to Afghanistan should be reopened.

Pakistan shut down the routes after U.S. airstrikes mistakenly killed 24 Pakistani troops near the Afghan border last November.

Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar told reporters in Islamabad Monday that Pakistan needs closure on the cross-border attack and needs to “move on.” She said Pakistan has “made the point and we now need to move on and go into a positive zone of trying to conduct our relations” with the United States.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said Monday his government was in serious discussions with U.S. officials on reopening the NATO supply routes and that talks have been “very constructive” and would “yield results.”

Pakistan has repeatedly demanded a U.S. apology for last year's cross-border attack that killed Pakistani troops. The United States has offered its condolences for the deaths.

The attack also prompted Pakistan's parliament to review its future engagement with the United States. Lawmakers have demanded that the United States end drone strikes on Pakistani soil.

U.S. officials have been engaged in negotiations with their Pakistani counterparts to try and reopen the supply route. The talks come just days before a NATO summit in Chicago to discuss the future of Afghanistan, once international combat troops leave the war-torn country in 2014.

Pakistan has not been invited to the summit.