Islamabad, Sept 16(ANI): US-Pakistan bilateral engagements scheduled in New York could be an immediate casualty of this week's 20-hour militant assault against the US Embassy and NATO headquarters in Kabul, which has turned the gradually warming bilateral ties frosty once again.
The United States and Pakistan were to negotiate a framework for future engagement in their meetings on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session.
The agreement, though both sides differ on its precise description, was expected to address major points of discord, including the nature of Central Intelligence agency (CIA) operations in Pakistan and its working relationship with the Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI), US drone attacks and regional sensitivities of the two countries, the Dawn reports.
However, indications from Washington following Tuesday's militant attack in Kabul, blamed by US officials on the Pakistan-based Haqqani Network, are not positive, the report said.
Now, the meeting between Pakistan Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir and the US Special Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Ambassador Marc Grossman, to discuss the 'terms of engagement' for 'clearing out the cloud in relationship', is uncertain, the report added.
The sense some of the Pakistani diplomats in Washington and Islamabad got from their conversations with US officials is that even if this meeting does take place, it would not be productive, unless Islamabad addresses US concerns about the Haqqani Network, the report said.
A lot would, however, depend on the outcome of a meeting between Pakistan Army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen in Seville, Spain, on the sidelines of a NATO conference over the next couple of days.
Although the meeting was earlier thought to be meant to add momentum to normalisation of relations, it now appears the two commanders would once again be looking at repairing the strained relationship. (ANI)
|
|
Read More: Bashi
Comments:
