U.S. team to Pakistan for talks on ties
By Elise Labott
American officials arrive in Pakistan Wednesday for negotiations over parliamentary recommendations on how Islamabad wants to deal with Washington in the future, as the two countries seek to repair their frayed ties, senior U.S. officials told CNN.
The inter-agency delegation, led by Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Marc Grossman, also will include officials from the Pentagon, CIA and other U.S. agencies, the officials said. Tri-lateral talks with an Afghan delegation will be part of the trip as well.
The talks would be the first in-depth engagement since Pakistan's parliament rolled out a set of new guidelines for its relations with the United States, in which it agreed to re-engage with Washington after months of tension over deadly airstrikes on a Pakistani border post by NATO forces and other issues. Grossman had tried to visit Pakistan a few months ago, but the Pakistani government delayed the visit until the parliamentary process could be completed.
Officials were careful not to raise expectations for the talks, saying they weren't sure what could be accomplished in the first meeting. But they said it was important to try to renew the working relationship between the two countries.
"The purpose is to continue to re-engage and rebuild our relationship which is very much in both our interests, now that the parliamentary recommendations are done," a senior U.S. official told CNN.
The list of recommendations, approved by lawmakers and announced April 12, includes a call for an immediate end to U.S. drone attacks and no further use of Pakistan as a transportation route for weapons into Afghanistan.
The document said that future relations with the United States are to be based on mutual interest and no overt or covert operations - including private security companies or operatives - will be allowed on Pakistani soil. In addition, no foreign countries will be allowed to establish bases in Pakistan, according to the recommendations.
The recommendations were drawn up by the Parliamentary Committee on National Security, a group of 18 lawmakers responsible for reviewing relations with the United States, NATO and ISAF.
Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani told lawmakers that his government would work to implement the resolution "in letter and spirit." But in Washington, the U.S. State Department greeted the demands coolly.
"We respect the seriousness with which parliament's review of U.S.-Pakistan relations has been conducted," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a statement issued after the recommendations were announced. "We seek a relationship with Pakistan that is enduring, strategic, and more clearly defined. We look forward to discussing these policy recommendations with the government of Pakistan and continuing to engage with it on our shared interests."
Relations between Pakistan and the United States hit a new low after NATO airstrikes on November 26 killed 24 Pakistani soldiers on the Pakistani-Afghan border.
The deaths added to the anger already felt by Pakistanis over the U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden at a compound in Pakistan last May, and continued American drone strikes on targets in the nation.
Following the deadly border airstrikes, the Pakistani government shut down the two NATO supply routes in the country, asked the United States to vacate an air base on its territory and boycotted a conference about the future of Afghanistan.
U.S. President Barack Obama expressed hope last month that the two nations could arrive at a "balanced approach" to relations as he met with Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on the sidelines of a nuclear security summit in South Korea.
The talks were the highest profile meeting between the two countries since the November airstrikes.
Obama said then that his expectation was that "we can achieve the kind of balanced approach that respects Pakistan's sovereignty but also respects our concerns with respect to our national security and our needs to battle terrorists who have targeted us in the past."
An investigation into the lethal NATO airstrikes in November by Brig. Gen. Stephen Clark on behalf of the United States concluded that Pakistan provoked NATO forces and that distrust between the two parties led to the firefight.
Pakistan disputed the findings, saying Clark's report was factually incorrect.
There has been a sharp drop in the number of drone attacks in Pakistan since the airstrikes.
U.S. officials rarely discuss the CIA's drone program in Pakistan, though privately they have said that the covert strikes are legal and an effective tactic in the fight against extremists. Senior U.S. officials told CNN that drone strikes have continued, although the United States has focused on much higher value targets than in the past. Pakistan, the officials note, has been silent about it.
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Let them have their house of rocks. Oh, that's right we're there to rebuild them. That and $4 will buy you a gallon of gas.
stop the aid, foolish American politicians
A good hindu is a rotting hindu, you dirty hindus sell each other on the streets, i have seen no growth
in your shyt hole nation, all you do is kiss gora ass.
Pakistan army is the toughest and best, No nation has gone thru what Pakistan has gone through, and no one
can mess with us. fk u dirty hindu, i urinate on your kind and ur gora masters
Yep, just analogues to a GOOD MUSLIM IS A DEAD MUSLIM !!!
Yep, the only times that BEST army was beat was 1971, 1998, and finally OBL eradication from the very core of Porkistan !!!
And, you still hallucinating about your PORKISTANI BEST ARMY?
Acclaimed man is nothing more than a rat-worshiping heathen piece of shit.
Hey Paki commander, did you know:
Osama Bin Laden - DEAD
Atiyah Abd Al-Rahman - DEAD
Abu Ayyub Al-Masri - DEAD
Mustafa Al-Yazid - DEAD
Abu Qaswarah - DEAD
Abu Laith Al-Libi - DEAD
Muharib Abdul Latif Al-Jubouri - DEAD
Muhsin Musa Matwalli Atwah - DEAD
Baitullah Mehsud - DEAD
Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi - DEAD
Amjad Farooqi - DEAD
Ali Qaed Senyan Al-Harthi - DEAD
Ramzi Bin Al-Shibh - DEAD
Abu Zubaydah - DEAD
Abd Al-Rahim Al-Nashiri - DEAD
Muhammad Atef - DEAD
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed - ALMOST DEAD
all Paki's friends are dead. Hey dumba ss where do think your crap goes? some Paki confessed, it stays in jars in basement for rainy days.
The US should separate from the treacherous pakis. They are on the path of disintegration and then what is left the Indian will eat with their flat breads.
Are Hindus still drinking each others puke or their sacred cows urine. No wonder why they make such a obnoxious comments.
India is a fucking toilet.
We don't like them and they don't like us, but like it or not we need each other. The world is bigger than the good old USA. Things are more complex than worrying about the price of gas where the US gas prices are almost the cheapest in the Western world.
Long story short. Talks on ties ...$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Relying on the U.S. army too much is not an attitude of a respectful independent nation and needs to be changed. Also, I oppose of the establishment of many military bases in foreign countries by U.S..
Im sorry, nobody seems to have informed you that what you think is of no importance to anyone. except possibly to you excrement eating mother.
Time to sever diplomatic relations with Pakistan.
Yes, but first we have to get out of Afganistan. Our attempts to police the world are bankrupting this country!
........Us taxpayer here..............How about we REMOVE ALL FUNDING for Pakistan,.............give it ALL IN MILITARY AID TO INDIA, let it build for 3 years, then tell the Indians to go kick Paki az z !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sure. Why not. But first, let's stop funding Israel.
....Pakistan.............the average American dislikes your government, your tendency to support terrorists, and we HATE paying for it. Your US checks will end soon.
No they won't.
I agree cut funding to Pakistan and continue drone strikes and survelillance. If they proliferate nukes to terrorists they will have to pay the price.
This has already happened. Its lucky for us the nukes were recovered from the terrorists in pakiland.
You are simply beyond stupid. Please don't breed.
Israel needs to be the focus here.
We are facing destruction from Iran, but you still stuff burgers in your fat American faces…
PUT BOOTS IN IRAN!!
Have you forgotten what happened to us in WW2???
If you Americans withdraw support, I’m quite sure my nation will take you down with us. The Jews are sick of taking shittt.
Read the bible, the Jews are Chosen. You owe us your support.
After reading that, I'm quite content to watch you aparteid fukkkers burn...
You were chosen to take billions from my countrys treasury, and blood from its people.
I think its time we took the training wheels off your foul desert. See what happens.
Countries**
Go to hind, hell, hindu's, deniers of truth who cares about hindu Judaism, criminal self center ism and their hindu gentile's, slaves.
dollars to donuts the poster isn't jewish.
Ya, chosen to be hindu, criminals and to be in hind, hell for their hindu Judaism, criminal self center ism, secularism.
hahahha..paki...continue to humiliate yourself with ur stupid comments..continue....you are a joke on this forum....
Mohammad is that really you? You have been missing since that Paki avalanche; good to see you brother ; toghather, let's kick some Paki arses.
the focus here is exactley everything but your comment, stop posting jewish shit, go some sheelfish, you race is a bunch of stingy grubs.......
So what exactly are we even talking about here if they don't want us to transport our gear and don't want drone sites? As i see it, there isn't any point even to negotiate, what do they want, more money to keep funding terrorists? Throw them out, i don't even care if they have nukes, one goes over the border we flatten the place, end of discussion
Ya, go threaten the Pakistani's......see how long it takes them to ally formally with China....
Sometimes, just being an American makes me feel rather dumb....
It should.
Israelis have no such feeling....
They already are aligned with China. Every time our [Pakistan and US] relationship goes south Gilani or Zardari immediately fly to Beijing for a photo op.
It's funny, the ISI will never do anything to assist the Muslim separatists along China's Western frontier, but the ISI will hand over fist help terrorist groups kill Americans and Indians...
Hi Indian, using a fake name
Who cares if Pakistan allies with China. Let them have each other.
you are no american...u r a paki....only pakis make dumb comments and humiliate themselves...hahahahhaha