Washington: Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar has said that the US should apologise for Salala attack that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers if it wants the south Asian country to reopen Nato supply routes into Afghanistan.
“A representative parliament of 180 million people has spoken on one subject,” Khar told Foreign Policy, referring to new guidelines for US-Pakistan ties approved by Pakistani lawmakers which call for an apology.
A US apology is “something which should have been forthcoming the day this incident happened, and what a partnership not only demands, but requires,” she said.
A Nato summit in Chicago ended two weeks ago without a deal on the Nato supply lines.
Khar however said that despite the political challenges, the United States should live up to its principles of doing “what we consider to be right rather than what is more popular.”
She noted that Pakistan also has political obstacles of its own.
“For us in Pakistan… the most popular thing to do right now is to not move on Nato supply routes at all. It is to close them forever,” she said.
“If I were a political advisor to the prime minister, this is what I would advise him to do. But I’m not advising him to do that… because what is at stake is much more important for Pakistan than just winning an election.”
Khar also criticised Washington’s use of unmanned drones to target militants in Pakistan’s lawless tribal area, a program Obama has accelerated.
“If you are creating 10 more targets for every target you take, are you doing a service or a disservice to your eventual goal of winning the war?” she asked.
Another thorn in the side of the contentious US-Pakistani relationship has been Shakeel Afridi, the Pakistani doctor who helped the CIA find late al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden by running a fake vaccination program, and who was sentenced to 33 years in prison for treason.
“Clearly, my advice at this point is that we don’t need to blow this out of proportion at all,” Khar said. “But I would certainly not want this particular issue to cast a shadow over the relationship.”
The interview was conducted in Doha during the May 29-31 US-Islamic World Forum organized by The Brookings Institution.
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