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Pakistan wants to rebuild ties with US, says Gilani
[Dawn] Pakistain wants to rebuild its ties with the United States despite ongoing retaliation over deadly NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all....
 air strikes on its troops along the Afghan border, the country's prime minister said on Monday, stressing that he believes "it won't take long" to achieve a new relationship with its uneasy ally.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's
... Pakistain's erstwhile current prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics can be awe-inspiring ...
 remarks indicate that Pakistain is looking for a way to restore some normality to ties with Washington following the November 26 air strikes by the US-led coalition in Afghanistan, but wants to leverage the situation to try and reset the relationship in ways more beneficial to Pakistain.

In an interview with The News Agency that Dare Not be Named, Gilani also said the country remained committed to working with Afghanistan to bring jihad boy leaders -- many of whom are believed to be on Pak soil and to enjoy close relations with Islamabad's security forces -- into talks with the government and allow the US to begin withdrawing its troops as it is committed to doing.

"I think we have evolved some mechanisms, and we are ready to cooperate," he said, referring to meetings with Afghanistan's military and intelligence chiefs on a framework for talks. "We are committed (to reconciliation), despite that we are not attending" the conference on Afghanistan, he said.

That may offer some reassurance to international leaders meeting in Bonn, Germany, to discuss the future of Afghanistan.

Islamabad boycotted the talks because of the air strikes along the Pakistain-Afghan border that killed 24 Pak troops. The decision disappointed Afghan and Western leaders, who realize the vital role Pakistain has in any future stability in neighbouring Afghanistan even as they complain that it tolerates, or even supports, gunnies along the border.

Pakistain refused pleas by Afghan and US leaders to attend the Bonn conference. Gilani said he did not regret skipping the meeting, saying "since the soil of Afghanistan was used against Pakistain in the NATO raids, there was a tremendous protest in my country and people were putting pressure that we not attend."

Speaking in Germany, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
... sometimes described as The Heroine of Tuzla and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Henry L. Stimson ...
 called the deaths of the Pak soldiers tragic and reiterated a pledge for a thorough investigation. "No one is more interested than the United States in getting to the bottom of what happened in the border incident," she said.

President Barack In case you missed it, this week, there was a tragedy in Kansas. Ten thousand people died -- an entire town destroyed Obama called Pak President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari
... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ...
 on Sunday to offer his condolences. No one from either NATO or the US has formally apologised, but they have disputed comments by Pakistain's army that the act was a deliberate act of aggression.

Gilani said new ties being negotiated with the US would ensure that the two countries "respected each other's red lines" regarding illusory sovereignty and rules of engagement along the border. While he gave few details, he made it clear he thought this was both desirable and possible.

"We really want to have good relations with the US based on mutual respect and clearly defined parameters," he said in an interview at his residence. "I think that is doable. I think that it won't take long."
Posted by: Fred 2011-12-06
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=334720