Pakistan to allow US military trainers to return, with stipulations

Islamabad, Jan 21 (ANI): U.S. military trainers would reportedly be invited back into Pakistan "as early as April or May," but the nation has ruled out allowing CIA drones back into the country.

According to Fox News, the Pakistani parliament is reviewing the nature of its relationship with the U.S., and politicians are expected to deliver a list of conditions for cooperation to resume on January 30.

The stipulations will include no covert CIA or military operations on the ground in Pakistan, and no unauthorized incursions into its airspace. Drones, which are the CIA's biggest weapon against militants hiding in the tribal belt dividing Afghanistan and Pakistan, "can never return," a senior Pakistani official said.

"They will never be allowed back, at Shamsi or anywhere else," the official added, referring to the base in the country's southwest from which many of the unmanned aerial vehicles were deployed before the NATO attack in November.

In return, Pakistan would reportedly allow back U.S. military trainers, including special forces teams, and a resumption of close cooperation with the CIA in targeting militants who use the Pakistani side of the border as a safe haven and breeding ground for extremism.

It would also reportedly reopen the Torkham and Chaman border crossings into Afghanistan, which have been closed to NATO supply convoys since the attack.

"After this is presented to the Americans, a lot could happen very quickly," the senior official said.

Pakistan also would reportedly reopen its doors to high-level U.S. diplomats after an embarrassing snub this week to President Obama's special envoy to the region, Marc Grossman, who was denied his request to visit Pakistan in the middle of his tour of South Asia. (ANI)