NEW YORK: Ambassador of Pakistan to the United Nations Masood Khan has said Pakistan-US relations are back on track after a brief period of tensions.

Addressing a largely American audience at the Pakistan’s UN mission in New York on Thursday evening, Mr Khan observed that by and large people of Pakistan wanted good relations with the United States and said “there was no sign of hostility”.

He was responding to questions about the recent strained relations between Washington and Islamabad and the anti-American sentiment in Pakistan during a lecture on “Pakistan and the United Nations” organised jointly by the United Nations Association of New York and the Columbia University Club.

Mr Khan said Islamabad-Washington relations became strained following the arrest of a CIA operator for killing two Pakistan men in January 2011, the unilateral US raid that killed Osama bin Laden in May, and the US-led Nato air attack on Salala along the Pakistan Afghan border in November of the same year that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

But, he said, President Asif Ali Zardari and President Barack Obama, along with their top aides, had sorted out the issues and consequently there were no strains in the relationship.