Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar still waiting unconditional apology from US

Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar urged the United States for an unconditional apology for a cross-border attack that killed 24 Pakistani troops last year before it considered resumption of supply-line for allied forces.

She made these remarks on the sidelines of a Ministerial Conference in Kabul, aiming at building greater regional cooperation on Afghanistan and its future after withdrawal of coalition forces in 2014.

Rejecting the impression that Islamabad was haggling with Washington over transportation fees for the supplies, the minister observed, “Pakistan still wants an unconditional apology and the reassurance that a Salala type of incident does not happen again”.

She clarified that Islamabad was not backing any militant groups and that it was doing whatever it could to advance the peace-process in the region.

In the meantime, the foreign minister accused governments of doing an awful job at working together to tackle militancy in Afghanistan.

The minister was of the opinion that Pakistan has suffered enormously as a result of terrorism, saying that more united front was needed among international countries.

She noted, “We have been making the claim that we need to all work together to ensure that we win against them rather than they win against us”.

Khar further elaborated, “At this point in time, if there is a policy of divide and rule they are doing a great job at it and we are doing a terrible job at combining our energy, our forces, and our resources to be able to face them as one”.

Last week, US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta warned Islamabad that the US was running out of patience over Pakistan’s denial to do more to eliminate hiding places for insurgents, particularly Haqqani Network, who attacks US troops fighting in Afghanistan against militancy.

While replying to a query, the minister expressed pleasures saying that despite losing 24 Pakistani troops they were not losing patience with anyone.

She was referring to NATO air strikes on a Pakistani border post in November which killed 24 troops and led to Islamabad closing the ground routes through its territory used to supply coalition forces in Afghanistan.

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Posted by Faisal Farooq on Jun 15 2012. Filed under National, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.