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Summary The US military trainers will be invited back into Pakistan as early as April or May.
US military trainers will be invited back into Pakistan as early as April or May, but the return of CIA drones to Pakistani soil has been ruled out, FOX News said.Pakistans parliament is currently reviewing the nature of its relationship with the United States after 24 of its soldiers were killed during an inadvertent attack by NATO members.Politicians are expected to deliver a list of conditions for resuming cooperation to lawmakers for approval on Jan. 30.The main stipulations will include no covert CIA or military operations on the ground in Pakistan, nor unauthorized incursions into its airspace.Drones, which are the CIAs biggest weapon against militants hiding in the tribal belt diving Afghanistan and Pakistan, can never return, a senior Pakistan official told FOX News.They will never be allowed back, at Shamsi or anywhere else, the official added, referring to the base in the countrys southwest from which many of the unmanned aerial vehicles were deployed until the NATO incident in November.In return, Pakistan would allow back US military trainers, including special forces teams, and a resumption of close cooperation with the CIA in targeting militants who use the Pakistani side of the tribal belt as a safe haven and breeding ground for extremism.It would also reopen next month the Torkham and Chaman border crossings with Afghanistan, which have remained closed to NATO supply convoys as punishment to the coalition since the NATO attack.Islamabad would also open its doors to high level US diplomats again after an embarrassing snub this week for President Barack Obamas special envoy to the region, Marc Grossman, who was denied his request to visit Pakistan in the middle of his tour of South Asia.We understand the Government of Pakistan is still working on its review of U.S.-Pakistan relations, and we have not yet received a formal report from the government. Decisions about the level of Pakistani commitment to our military relationship are obviously theirs to make, and we respect that, said Capt. John Kirby, a spokesman for the Office of the Secretary of Defense, in an emailed statement.
