Talks with Pakistan for NATO supply routes: ISAF

Lt. Gen. Adrian Bradshaw, Deputy Commander on International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF) in Afghanistan said Wednesday that they were currently in talks with our Pakistani colleagues on how to re-open the ground supply routes. These routes were suspended by Pakistan after the Salala check-post attack on November 26 last year, in which 24 soldiers were killed.While briefing the reporters at Pentagon on Progress and Transition in Afghanistan via video link from Afghanistan, he said we are managing very well without these routes but it will be very helpful if these routes are opened again. Pakistan will also get some financial benefit out of it, he added suggesting that this may be a subject of discussion during the aforesaid talks. There have been media reports that Pakistani authorities have been considering levying new taxes on the cargo trucks as and when these routes are re-opened. Referring to the Salala attack, Lt. Gen. Bradshaw, a senior British Army officer, said that the events that led to closure of these routes were highly regrettable. However, in our talks (with Pakistan) we are rebuilding a very good relationship with Pakistani military, he observed. It may be mentioned here that the border security cooperation between both countries has remained generally on track despite the post-Salala tension. Pakistan and Afghanistan had a common threat from terrorists and their tendency to keep crossing the Afghan-Pakistan border in both countries for terrorist activities, the deputy commander emphasised. Our talks with Pakistan are on the right track and we hope that the problem will be resolved soon, he assured the reporters in response to a question. Pakistan, on the other hand, has been demanding an apology from NATO and United States on the Salala attack and has made it clear that nothing short of an apology will be acceptable before the supply routes could be re-opened. The recent visit of Ambassador Marc Grossman top Pakistan also remained to break the deadlock over this issue. Talking about the Haqqani network, which has been one of the contentious issue between Pakistan and US, he said that the Pakistan-based Haqqani network had been trying to carry out attacks in Afghanistan over the last several months, but their efforts had primarily failed barring an attack or two in kabul which were also thwarted successfully by the Afghan national security forces. We still have to deal with Haqqani network threat, but they are not succeeding, he argued. On the overall situation in Afghanistan, he said that the efforts of Taliban to recapture areas in Afghanistan have failed and the ability of Taliban to carry-out attacks has reduced by 10 percent in 2011. We have evidence that momentum of Taliban is being reversed and we are on the right track, he mentioned while cautioning that the Taliban were still a force to reckon with and a challenge that needed to be addressed. Lt. Gen. Bradshaw believed that the Strategic Partnership Agreement between United States and Afghanistan, signed by President Obama and President Karzai during the formers recent visit to Kabul, was a big achievement. We hope to build on it in Chicago summit while also expressing hope from the ongoing reconciliation and reintegration efforts with Taliban fighters, he stated.- Contributed by Awais Saleem, Dunya News correspondent in Washington, DC