Return of US team is not an institutional pullout: Sherry
WASHINGTON: Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States Sherry Rehman said on Monday that the return of an American negotiating team from Islamabad, where it worked with Pakistani counterparts on revival of the Nato supply routes, does not represent an institutional US pullout.
She was responding to a question about the US negotiating team’s return from Pakistan, announced by American officials here Monday.
“I don’t really see it as an institutional pullout, but really, that question is for the US administration to speak to.”
“For our part, I have been saying this again and again, Pakistan is seeking to be part of the solution for Nato and the US as they transfer security in Afghanistan, not an obstacle”.
“On the Nato supplies, the way forward is more related to other issues; we certainly did not close the GLOCs for leveraging a price advantage,” the ambassador remarked.
“They (supply routes) were not closed in a fit of pique or on impulse. These were closed as a decision of the DCC after 24 Pakistani soldiers were martyred at the Salala checkpost in November last, absent an expression of remorse,” she added.