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Pakistan not "gouging" over Nato's Afghan routes: Khar
[Dawn] Pakistain's foreign minister said on Tuesday difficult talks with the United States to repair frayed ties and re-open NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all....
 supply routes to Afghanistan were not being thwarted by a Pak demand for high tariffs on the supplies.
Once upon a time, O Best Beloved, the Pakistanis were really good at Byzantine intrigue...or so they said about themselves. They still say that about themselves, but things have changed, as things are wont to do.
Pakistain cut the routes for NATO supplies in November last year to protest against the death of 24 Pak soldiers killed in cross-border fire from NATO aircraft.

The supply lines for goods shipped in to the Pak port of Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
 and trucked in to landlocked Afghanistan have been vital for US-led forces over their more than 10-year involvement in Afghanistan.

Now, the routes are seen as important for the withdrawal of most foreign troops from Afghanistan before the end of 2014.

But talks on getting the routes re-opened have become snagged on a Pak demand for a substantial increase in the fees Pakistain charges on the supplies, media has reported.

But Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar rejected that.

"Pakistain is not in any sort of price-gouging debate right now. So these impressions are indeed incorrect, wrong and must be dispersed as soon as possible," Khar told news hounds.

"The US side knows very well the needs and requirements to enable us to move in that direction, to enable us to take that decision," she said, referring to re-opening the routes.

Posted by: Fred 2012-06-14
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=346539