Pakistan not to get formal condolence from Obama

Pakistan not to get formal condolence from Obama

It has recently been announced by the White House that the United States President Barrack Obama will not offer a formal condolence to Pakistan at least for the time being. The statement has been made by the White House in the light of 24 Pakistani soldiers
that lost their lives on Saturday due to the NATO airstrikes that hit two border posts of Pakistan.

The following comments were made by the New York Times regarding the issue: “The White House has decided that President Obama will not offer formal condolences- at least for now- to Pakistan for the deaths of two dozen soldiers in NATO airstrikes last week,
overruling State Department officials who argued for such a show of remorse to help salvage America’s relationship with Pakistan.”

The airstrikes went on for a period of almost two hours despite the fact that the NATO forces were pleaded by their Pakistani counterparts to stop the fire. According to some unnamed high ranking Afghan officials, the NATO forces as well as the Afghan commandos
were carrying out a mission on the Pakistan-Afghan border when they received fire coming from the Pakistani border in response to which the airstrikes were made.

However, the statement that was given out by the NATO said that the matter will be given top priority and will be investigated. In response to the airstrikes, Pakistan has taken a strong stand. The cabinet of Pakistan has decided to boycott the Bonn conference
on Afghanistan that is scheduled to take place this month in Germany. Pakistan was deemed to be a key player in the conference as it has been active in the past in important strategic concerns related to Afghanistan. Therefore, an absence of Pakistan from
the conference will be felt significantly.

The suggestion that the President Barrack Obama make a formal condolence with Pakistan was made by a top U.S. official based in Pakistan as the relations between the two nations experienced an all time low in the last decade. There is widespread and open
hostility in the public of Pakistan against the NATO attacks and as a consequence against the U.S. as well.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=5284

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