US withdraws supply negotiators from Pakistan

The United States is withdrawing its team of negotiators from Pakistan without securing a long-sought deal with Islamabad to allow trucks to again supply NATO troops in neighboring Afghanistan, the Pentagon has said.

“The decision was reached to bring the team home for a short period of time,” George Little, Pentagon spokesman, told reporters on Monday.

The team of negotiators had been in Pakistan for about six weeks, he said, as US officials had believed they were close to a deal with Islamabad to lift the blockade on NATO convoys.

But no breakthrough was imminent and there was no scheduled date for a resumption of the negotiations, Little said.

The comments came after Pakistan’s army chief, General Ashfaq Kayani, refused last week to meet US assistant defence secretary Peter Lavoy, who traveled to Pakistan to try to resolve the dispute, officials said.

Lavoy “was hoping to meet with General Kayani to work through this issue,” Little said.

‘US decision’

The decision is the latest sign of troubled ties with Islamabad and was announced just days after Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said the United States was reaching the limits of its patience because of the safe havens Pakistan offered to armed groups.

Pakistan’s envoy to the US had warned that Panetta’s comments last Thursday in Kabul were unhelpful to efforts to narrow the differences between the two countries and came at a critical moment in negotiations.

Little said the decision to withdraw the negotiating team was not imposed by Pakistan. He said the team of negotiators had been there for about six weeks and deserved a rest.

“I believe that some of the team left over the weekend and the remainder of the team will leave shortly,” Little told reporters. “This was a US decision.”

Pakistan closed ground supply routes through its territory last year to protest a cross-border NATO air attack that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

As a result, NATO has turned to countries to the north of Afghanistan for land routes as the US-led alliance begins a withdrawal of its forces from the country next year.

‘Priority’ deal

Resupplying troops in Afghanistan through the northern route is more than twice as expensive than shipping items through Pakistan, a US defense official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Little acknowledged that securing a deal with Pakistan remained a priority and said the team of negotiators could return at any moment.

In the meantime, military officials attached to the US Embassy in Islamabad would be able to discuss the matter with Pakistani officials.

“We will continue to work through the [ground supply route] matter with Pakistan. And the members of the team that are
leaving, or have, left are prepared to return to Islamabad at any moment to continue discussions in person,” Little said.

Huma Imtiaz, Washington correspondent for the Pakistani-based Express Tribune newspaper, told Al Jazeera that even if the NATO supply routes were to reopen, US-Pakistan relations are unlikely to go back to what they were in years past.

She said that while there’s clearly “a desire to move forward on both sides”, the path to progress remains unclear.

“Remember, it’s been over six months now since the NATO supply routes were closed, and Pakistan doesn’t seem to be getting an apology, and the United States doesn’t seem to be getting the routes opened.”