Obama refuses to offer formal commiserations on NATO strike

President of the United States, Barack Obama, is not considering offering formal commiserations to the government and armed forces of Pakistan over the NATO airstrike last week. Pakistan army lost 24 precious lives
in an airstrike from the United States and NATO last Saturday, putting the Pak-America relations into jeopardy.

NATO supply line to Afghanistan was immediately cut off following the attack on Pakistan army, causing some serious tension in the bilateral relations of the two nations. Prime Minister of Pakistan, Sayed Yousuf Raza Gilani, released
a statement to the White House, stating that there would be “no more business as usual” with Washington after the tragic attack from NATO forces.

It was reported that the United States Ambassador in Pakistan, Cameron Munter, has requested the White House to issue a formal video statement from President Obama so that the swiftly waning relations between the two sides could
be prevented. However, the White House has refused the plea from Munter, citing that condolences offered by senior administration officials and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were enough.

Although NATO is carrying out an enquiry of to find out the rationale of the airstrike, The Pentagon has announced that the United States army will commence a separate enquiry to determine the reasons of what caused NATO to attack
the Pakistani check post.

White House Press Secretary, Jay Carney, addressed to a press conference, stating: “Well, we take the matter very seriously. And we understand concern that members of the Pakistani government, as well as the Pakistani people, have
about this incident. And that`s why we`re very interested in having it investigated and finding out exactly what happened.”

Senior army officials have already advised the White House to take immediate steps revive the relations with Pakistan as soon as possible as the United States cannot afford to annoy one of its most important ally in the war against
terrorism in Afghanistan. On the other hand, the officials at the White House have revealed that President Obama was unlikely to say anything further on the matter in the coming days and this can further exacerbate the current situation.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=5258

Posted by Farhan Hameed on Dec 1 2011. Filed under Pakistan, Politics, USA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry