US hopes for quick reopening of route

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

WASHINGTON: After a high-level meeting in Washington between US and Pakistani diplomats, the White House said on Monday that the two countries were close to resolving their dispute over Islamabad’s decision to close a supply route for US-led forces in Afghanistan.

Sources at the Pakistan Embassy also confirmed that senior officials from the two countries had discussed the issue at the US State Department earlier in the day.

“Such talks are being held in both Washington and Islamabad,” said a Pakistani diplomat who did not want to be identified.

“We are in discussions and working with the government of Pakistan to address the concerns relating to the closure of the border there. We believe we are close to producing some results on that and may have more on that in the future,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters in Washington.

Asked how soon he expected the Torkham route, which Pakistan closed last week after three Pakistani soldiers were killed by ISAF helicopters, to reopen, Mr Gibbs said: “We’re working government to government. Obviously, we have expressed our condolences for what happened several days ago in Pakistan with ISAF and their forces. And we’re working through the border closing right now”.

The White House spokesman, however, refused to comment on media reports that a US drone strike had killed eight Germans in Pakistan on Monday.

“I don’t. But if I did, I wouldn’t get into it,” said Mr Gibbs, adding that he did not offer comments on intelligence matters.

The White House official said that despite the differences that sometimes cropped up, both Pakistan and Afghanistan remained America’s “strong and important” partners in the war against terror.

“We would not be in Afghanistan were it not in their interest and our interest for us to be there, to ensure that what the Taliban once held and controlled they don’t ever control again,” he said.

A Taliban-run Afghanistan, he added, would allow the insurgents “the unencumbered ability to plan and execute attacks against our country”.