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Obama snubs pakistan as conflict over supply routes continues by 123wert sdfsf
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Obama snubs pakistan as conflict over supply routes continues |
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CHICAGO – In an unmistakable snub, President Barack Obama left Pakistan offa list of nations he thanked Monday for help getting war suppliesinto Afghanistan. The omission speaks to the prolonged slump in U.S. relations withPakistan that clouded a NATO summit where nations were eyeing theexits in Afghanistan. Tensions that Obama readily acknowledged raise questions aboutwhether Pakistan will help or hurt the goal of a stableAfghanistan.
Continued mistrust between the United States andPakistan also threaten cooperation to eliminate Al Qaedasanctuaries and could undermine U.S. confidence in the security ofPakistan's growing nuclear arsenal. "We need to work through some of the tensions that have inevitablyarisen after 10 years of our military presence in that region,"Obama said later. "I don't want to paper over real challengesthere." Pakistan is not a NATO member but was invited to the summit Sundayand Monday because of its influence in next-door Afghanistan andits role until last year as the major supply route to landlockedNATO forces there. Pakistan closed those routes after a U.S.
attackon the Pakistani side of the border killed 24 Pakistani soldiers inNovember. The last-minute invitation from NATO to join the Chicago talks wasa sign of hope that the rift had healed. But it hasn't. And Obama's dealings with Pakistani President AsifAli Zardari made that clear on Monday. Zardari came to Obama's home town expecting a separate meeting withthe U.S.
leader like the one accorded to Afghan President HamidKarzai. But without a final deal to reopen the supply lines, nosuch meeting was to occur. Obama, along with Karzai, did speak briefly with Zardari on thesidelines of a large group meeting Monday. Karzai dismissed theencounter in an interview with CNN as a "three-way photographtaking...just a photo opportunity." That was after Zardari had to sit by as Obama opened Monday'ssession with public thanks only to the nations north of Afghanistanwho allowed expanded supply shipments to transit their territory tocompensate for the closed Pakistani border gates. "I want to welcome the presence of President Karzai, as well asofficials from central Asia and Russia -- nations that have animportant perspective and that continue to provide critical transitfor ISAF supplies," Obama said, referring to the InternationalSecurity Assistance Force that is fighting the war.
Pakistani officials played down the snub. "The supply route on Pakistan's side has been suspended for thelast six months," Zardari's spokesman Farhatullah Babar toldreporters. "There was really no expectation from our side that theU.S. president would appreciate and admire the suspension of theNATO supply lines." The border crossing dispute is stuck over how much the U.S.
willpay Pakistan to allow trucks to transit its territory. Before theairstrike, the U.S. paid about $250 per truck. Now, two U.S.officials said, Pakistan wants $5,000 a truck and an apology forthe deaths in the airstrike. The Obama administration has said itwas willing to pay as much as $500 per vehicle and has expressedcondolences and regret, but no apology.
The officials spoke oncondition of anonymity because the negotiations were beingconducted in private. The prospects for reaching a deal were unclear, even as the stakesgrow larger. Babar said the government had asked negotiators to expedite anagreement, but that "no timeline can be given." Obama told reporters at the close of the summit that he knewbeforehand that there would be no deal on the supply routes now. "President Zardari shared with me his belief that these issues canget worked through," Obama said.
"We're actually making diligentprogress on it." Zardari also met with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton onSunday and made a beeline across a meeting hall to grasp her handagain on Monday morning. The State Department said Clinton andZardari "discussed the importance of reopening the NATO supplylines," and of cooperating to fight terrorist threats. The U.S. and Pakistan have a history of troubled relations thatstarted well before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Theroad has grown only rockier since then. Despite giving Pakistanbillions of dollars in aid over the past decade, anti-Americanismis widespread in Pakistan. And after years of sometimes meaningfulcooperation in hunting down Al Qaeda figures, Pakistan is stillseen by many U.S. officials as double-dealing and unreliable.
The transit route issue was a distraction and an embarrassment forthe United States at the summit, and Obama's cool arm's lengthtreatment of Zardari made it look even worse for the Pakistanipresident. "Pakistan has to be part of the solution in Afghanistan, and it isin our national interests that to see a Pakistan that isdemocratic, that is prosperous and that is stable," Obama said. The quarrel over supply routes is intertwined with several otherdisputes, including Pakistan's opposition to U.S. drone strikesagainst terrorist targets inside its borders.
In addition to closing the border crossings in response to theNovember attack, Pakistan ordered the U.S. to vacate Shamsi airbase, which the U.S. was using to launch drone strikes at Al Qaedaand Taliban militants. The top allied commander in Afghanistan, Marine Gen.
John Allen,has tried to cast the supply route problem in the best possiblelight, while acknowledging that he'd like to see the bordercrossings reopened as soon as possible. Allen said Sunday that bysome measure, war stocks are higher now than when the crossingswere closed. That is thanks to an increased -- and much more costly -- use ofalternative routes, including a network of northern routes thatconnect Baltic and Caspian Sea ports with Afghanistan throughRussia and Central Asia and the Caucasus. And they combine sea,rail and truck transport and are more costly than crossing Pakistanby land. U.S.
officials have offered a range of estimates on how much theclosing of the Pakistani land routes have added to the overallsupply costs, but it apparently is at least two or three times moreexpensive to move supplies by air and via the northern route. To underline the value of those alternative supply routes from thenorth, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta met Monday in Chicago withhis counterparts from the central Asian nations of Kazakhstan,Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. He expressedhis "deep appreciation for their support" of the northern supplyroute, Pentagon press secretary George Little said. At least as troublesome as being forced to use alternative supplyroutes into Afghanistan is the issue of how to get war materiel outof the country as Allen begins the withdrawal of thousands of U.S.troops this summer.
That's because the withdrawal includes shipmentof vehicles and other equipment that would be costly and timeconsuming to remove by air. The NATO alliance needs Pakistan's cooperation to ensureAfghanistan's long-term stability and security, NATO's top officertold reporters. That was a mild way of saying that Pakistan canplay the spoiler at will and holds cards the fighting force doesnot. Pakistan shares history, culture and language withAfghanistan's restive southern swath, and maintains support forTaliban-led insurgents who cross the border to kill U.S. and NATOforces. I am an expert from Industrial Supplies, usually analyzes all kind of industries situation, such as small metering pump , handheld barcode reader.
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