Panetta claims route closures through Pakistan costs U.S. 100 million per month

While strictly speaking this may be true the U.S. has not paid Pakistan for cost associated with its own efforts in the tribal areas since 2010. The amount is estimated by Pakistan at over 3 billion U.S. and even by the U.S. as over a billion. The U.S. has also cut other aid. These sums owing are used as leverage to force Pakistan to reopen the routes.

Panetta was speaking before a Senate Appropriations panel. The panel was discussing whether to cut even more aid to Pakistan. While Panetta urged the group not to cut the aid fully he said that conditions should be put on the 3.5 billion aid that is supposed to go to Pakistan this year.

The Pakistan government has demanded an apology for an attack on the border that killed 24 Pakistani troops and the cessation of drone attacks as a condition for reopening borders. The U.S. has said it will do neither.

U.S. officials urge Pakistan to simply reopen the routes without conditions. However, at the very least the Pakistanis are demanding a considerable increase in fees and no doubt the release of aid money. However Pakistan in all probability will settle for money and forget about the drone attack and apology conditions. See for example this article. The Pakistani foreign minister Hina Khar rejected the complaint by the U.S about price gouging. However there was no mention of the specific conditions supposedly required for reopening the routes that is the apology and the cessation of drone attacks. For more see this article.

U.S. withdraw negotiating team working on deal to reopen NATO supply routes

Since a fatal border air attack by NATO last November which killed 24 Pakistani troops Pakistan has closed down NATO supply routes to Afghanistan. As a condition of opening the routes again the Pakistanis have asked for an apology and cessation of drone attacks. The U.S. has responded by stepping up the number of drone attacks. They have not apologized.

The Pakistani government strongly objected to the drone attacks.The U.S. through defense minister Panetta said that the U.S. was losing patience with Pakistan for harboring terrorists. All of this no doubt has made it virtually impossible in political terms to reach a deal with the U.S. Apparently the U.S. does not care.

Pentagon spokesperson George Little said:"The decision was reached to bring the team home for a short period of time," The negotiating team had been in Pakistan for six weeks and thought that they were close to a deal. U.S. actions have no doubt sabotaged that for now. There has not even been a date set for resumption of negotiations.

  Althoughthere is an alternative land route through central Asian republics the cost is very much greater than the Pakistan route. For more see this article.

NATO negotiates new supply route through Central Asia to Afghanistan

The NATO head Anders Rasmussen reports that the three central Asian states of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan have agreed to allow NATO supplies through a new land supply route to Afghanistan. The new deal will allow European nations who are withdrawing from Afghanistan over the next few years to return troops and equipment by land through Russia to Europe. It will also provide a temporary alternative for NATO supplies since the Pakistani routes are not still not reopened.

However, the U.S. is intending to stay in Afghanistan until 2024 and the Central Asian route is much more expensive than the sea route with transhipment through Pakistan. Pakistan closed the border to NATO supplies last November and negotiations have still not been completed to reopen the routes. Pakistan has demanded an apology for the incident that provoked the closing. Numbers of Pakistani soldiers were killed in an attack on the a border base. An end to drone attacks was also a requirement but drone attacks are actually increasing. For more see this article.

Pakistani parliament unaminously demands end to drone strikes as condition of opening Afghan supply routes

The parliament also set other conditions for restoring relations with the U.S. and opening NATO supply routes through Pakistan to Afghanistan. Another significant condition was an unconditional apology for the air strike in November that killed two dozen Pakistani troops.

Chair of the committee that presented the 14 point recommendations Raza Rabbani said that all U.S. military incursions into Pakistan must cease including drone attacks. He said:“The U.S. footprint in Pakistan must be reviewed. This means, one, an immediate cessation of drone attacks inside the territory and borders of Pakistan," "Two, the cessation of infiltration into Pakistani territory on any pretext including hot pursuit. Three, Pakistani territory, including its airspace, shall not be used for transportation of arms and ammunition to Afghanistan.”

The recommendations go even further and demand an end to covert operations in Pakistan and demands that no private security contractors or intelligence operatives be allowed in the country. No doubt this is a reaction to the killing of an Afghan by a CIA operative.

While Pakistan may get an apology, it is highly unlikely that drone attacks will cease. In fact the U.S. has said they will not. The parliament has previously passed motions demanding drone attacks cease but they carry on anyway. In the past at least the attacks have been tacitly endorsed or allowed by government officials and targets have been set using Pakistani intelligence in all likelihood.

Prime Minister Raza Gilani said:“Madame Speaker, we are making history today. This parliament has proven time and time again that when it comes to matters of national interest we can and do come together,” The government has not delivered on such resolutions in the past and is unlikely to do in the future either. For more see this Voice of America article.

Meanwhile the Pakistani military continues trying to clear militants from border areas with Afghanistan causing a continuing humanitarian disaster as families flee the fighting to overcrowded refugee camps. An official from the UN refugee agency said that more than 200,000 people have fled the fighting in the Khyber district since January. See this article.

Pakistani opposition leader opposed to reopening NATO supply routes

According to a report by SANA(South Asian News Agency) the leader of the Pakistan opposition in the National Assembly Chaudry Nizar Ali Khan , Pakistan should not at this time re-open NATO supply routes. Chaudry claims that restoring the routes would create unrest in the country.

Chaudry is particuarly angry at the government for doing nothing about two resolutions passed by parliament that demanded the end of drone attacks. Instead of doing anything concrete to ensure the resolutions were carried out, the Pakistani government has now tabled another resolution demanding the same action!

Passing another resolution claims Chaudry dishonours the parliament. He also claims that nothing in the recommendations of the parliamentary committee on restoring U.S. Pakistan relations does anything to balance to U.S. Pakistan relations. Given that the U.S. provides a lot of aid both military and otherwise to Pakistan, the country can probably not expect much balance.

Chaudry also said:“I am saying continuously that foreign intelligence agents are working in Pakistan without any license, Government should bring the details of those before the masses. "" He noted too that the government continually passed laws in its own interests. Surely that is not a crime but common everywhere! For more see this article.

Pakistani Opposition Party to start blocking NATO supplies to Afghanistan

This is just a sign of more problems to come as Pakistan turns a blind eye to drone attacks in the tribal areas. There is greater and greater opposition to Pakistan's alignment with US policy. Already NATO and the US are developing alternate routes into Afghanistan. These routes however are longer and no doubt transportation costs will be high however perhaps not as high as going through Pakistan and having trucks constantly destroyed.


Pakistani Opposition Party to Start Blocking NATO Supplies to Afghanistan
JI to Announce Blockade Strategy on Thursday

Over a week of attacks by Peshawar-area militants on NATO vehicles and supply containers was already having a noticeable impact on the ability to ship supplies across the Khyber Pass, through which three-quarters of supplies for the international military operation reach Afghanistan. And while NATO insists that “for the moment the supplies are passing,” one of Pakistan’s oldest political parties may soon put a stop to that.
Jamaat-e Islami (JI), a religious party that boycotted the most recent elections over then-President Musharraf’s State of Emergency, remains an influential opposition voice, particularly in Pakistan’s tribal areas. Flexing some of that authority, JI announced today that it intends to begin blocking NATO supplies on Thursday.
A long-time critic of American air-strikes into Pakistan, top JI leader Qazi Hussain Ahmed last month threatened to organize civilians to “create hurdles” against NATO supplies if the strikes continued. JI provincial president Sirajul Haq said that the strategy for blocking the supplies will be revealed at the end of a protest march already planned for Thursday.
Given the contentiousness of the US air strikes, JI is likely to find plenty of civilian recruits for creating hurdles along the route. If they are able to bring NATO shipments to a halt, they may wind up doing what seven years of insurgency have not, crippling the Afghan war effort.
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