Washington: As Pakistan continues to block
the NATO supply routes to Afghanistan after deadly November 24
incident and no change seen in its policies with regard to its
links with extremist groups, America's patience with Pakistan
is growing thinner, US officials feel.
What has been annoying the Obama Administration is the
fact that Pakistan is increasingly standing upfront against
the US and is saying "no" more often than ever to any American
requests with regard to war against terrorism, The Washington
Post reported.
A case in the point, Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina
Rabbani Khar bluntly told US Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton that any unauthorised flight into its Pakistan's air
space, risks being shot down, the paper said.
Not only this, Pakistan turned down the request of US
Special Representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan Marc
Grossman to travel to Islamabad during his current trip to the
region that started this week, the daily said.
"In the United States, Obama is under political pressure
to show Islamabad who is the global boss. Patience here has
grown paper-thin with what is seen as Pakistani double-dealing
and intransigence that is getting in the way of efforts to
wind down the Afghan war," The Post reported in an analysis
based on conversation and interviews with unnamed officials
from both the US and Pakistan.
"Pakistan also has snubbed US efforts to boost the Afghan
economy with a gas pipeline that would run from Tajikistan
through Afghanistan to Pakistani ports. Instead, it has
reiterated its plans to proceed with an alternative pipeline
from Iran," the daily said.
The Obama Administration has decided not to go public yet
and will wait till the Pakistan Parliament completes its
review of US-Pak ties.
"We have views on where we would like to see this go," a
US official was quoted as saying.
But it will "take another week or two ... for their
internal process to come to some kind of formal communication
that would be communicated back to us," the official added.
A senior Pakistani government official told The Post that
the committee’s recommendations will probably include a demand
for explicit US assurances that there will be no violation of
sovereignty no American boots on the ground, no more
unilateral raids, no manned air strikes.
The official said there is likely to be some arrangement
on drone attacks, with Pakistan calling for large reductions
in their number and geographic scope, and demanding prior
notification and approval of every strike.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, January 17, 2012, 15:58