Pakistan will soon reopen the ground lines of communication to Afghanistan, which were shut down last November following the death of 24 soldiers in a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's strike, the White House has said. "We continue to work with Pakistan on this issue. We did not anticipate that the supply line issue was going to be resolved prior to the summit. And our teams continue to meet and we are making diligent progress," said White House Press Secretary Jay Carney.
United States President Barack Obama should "show some courage" and apologise to Pakistan for a cross-border air strike by North Atlantic Treaty Organisation forces in Afghanistan that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers last year, the ruling Pakistan People's Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said.
The United States on Tuesday said that North Atlantic Treaty Organisation countries have decided it is important to have participation of Pakistan at the Chicago Summit on Afghanistan hoping that Islamabad would be able to reopen the supply routes by then.
The Pakistan military believes that American and British military will withdraw from Afghanistan -- and when they do, they will need old Taliban friends such as Jalaluddin Haqqani and his son Sirajuddin to minimise the influence of India in its Afghan backyard.Although Pakistan's military chiefs have been talking about an 'imminent' assault since last June, all the evidence has pointed to deep reluctance to launch a massive ground offensive.
As Pakistan fumed over aerial attacks by North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's forces inside its territory that killed nearly 50 militants, the Pentagon has asserted that armed forces have the right to self defence and the United States followed the appropriate protocol in the situation. "The armed forces have the right to self defence. They have been attacked and they respond and they notify the Pakistani government about it," said the Pentagon.
Continuing its tirade against the successful launch of Agni V, Chinese state media has again accused New Delhi of buckling under pressure from the North Atlantic Treaty organisation to cut down the missile's range from 9,000 km to 5,000 km.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Tuesday announced the withdrawal of most Australian troops from Afghanistan by the middle of next year, while rolling out her future plan of Canberra's role in the war-torn country. In a speech in Canberra, Gillard said Australian troops would begin pulling out this year and most would be home by the end of 2013 -- an election year in the country.
In its set of recommendations, the China Committee said that economic sanctions against China in case of an attack on Taiwan will be most effective if key allies such as G7, NATO, NATO+5, and Quad members join, and negotiating a joint response and broadcasting this message publicly have the added benefit of enhancing deterrence.
Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has said his government is in no hurry to reopen the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation supply routes that were closed after a cross-border air strike last year and that a decision on the issue will be made only after evolving consensus among political parties.
The top United States admiral involved in the Libyan war has admitted to a US Congressman that forces of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation are actively targeting and trying to kill Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. House Armed Services Committee member Mike Turner said that Samuel Locklear, commander of the NATO Joint Operations Command in Naples, told him NATO forces are trying to kill Gaddafi.
A Turkish military helicopter on a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation mission crashed into a house outside the Afghan capital Kabul on Friday, killing at least 15 people -- 12 soldiers on board and three civilians on the ground.
The United States Army continues to investigate the tragic killing of 16 Afghan civilians in Kandahar, the Pentagon has said but remained unclear as to when the suspected American soldier would be charged.
A driver of a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation oil tanker was killed and his assistant injured when suspected militants attacked the vehicle in Balochistan province of southwest Pakistan on Friday, police said.
Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi has pledged to remain in his 'land dead or alive' after a number of low-flying North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's jets attacked his compound. Gaddafi made his comments in a televised broadcast to criticise the attack. His whereabouts are not known. "We will not surrender: we only have one choice -- to the end! Death, victory, it does not matter, we are not surrendering," the paper quoted Gaddafi as saying.
Libya's embattled leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi is showing increasing signs of paranoia, he's on the run and has been spending nights hiding in different hospitals to dodge North Atlantic Treaty Organisation air raids, a British news report said.
At least 16 people were killed and several more injured when North Atlantic Treaty Organisation oil tankers bound for Afghanistan were targeted with bombs in the Pakistani border town of Landi Kotal on Saturday, officials said.
As a cornered Pakistan faced all-round flak for its failure to detect Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's presence on its soil, its parliament on Saturday slammed the United States raid that killed him and warned that the transit facility to Afghan-based North Atlantic Treaty Organsition forces would be withdrawn if "unilateral" American actions like drone strikes continued.
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation is being allowed to use Pakistani airspace to fly food supplies to troops in Afghanistan though land routes have been closed since a cross-border air strike last year, Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar said on Tuesday.
President Obama had been justifiably angered by McChrystal's irreverent remarks which appeared in Rolling Stone. His irreverent remarks caused considerable embarrassment in the Pentagon and the White House. His dismissal was inevitable.
Two navy sailors and a civilian were killed, a naval spokesman told the media. Over 15 injured people, including civilians, were taken to two nearby hospitals.
General David Petraeus, Commander of the US Central Command, on Tuesday refuted reports that Afghan President Hamid Karzai has lost confidence in the American and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation forces to succeed in Afghanistan.
As forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi continue to push the rebels from their positions, cracks seem to be appearing in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation over military strategy in Libya, with major NATO alliance partner France demanding that the punishing raids should be carried out to finish strongman's tanks and heavy artillery.
A North Atlantic Treaty Organisation air attack on Thursday killed at least 13 rebels and wounded several others near Brega, after they were mistaken for Muammar Gaddafi's forces which was engaged in fierce fighting for the control of the eastern oil hub.
Noting that the military action by the coalition forces has significantly degraded the ability of the Libyan regime to defend itself, United States Defence Secretary Robert Gates has said the people themselves would throw Muammar Gaddafi out of power.
The rebel-stronghold of Benghazi came under attack on Saturday from ground and air, with explosions rocking the city despite a ceasefire announced by Muammar Gaddafi forces, prompting a warning by the United States that the Libyan leader was violating the truce.
The Pakistani Army on Friday rejected a United States-led inquiry report into a cross-border North Atlantic Treaty Organisation air strike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November, saying it is "short on facts." "The Pakistan Army does not agree with the findings of the US/NATO inquiry as is being reported in the media. The inquiry report is short on facts," chief military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said.
Struggling to restore its flagging ties with Pakistan in the aftermath of the deadly strike by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, the Obama administration has said it has not cut any civilian aid to the country, noting the move in this regard was part of a defence bill in the Congress. "Well, first of all, just to clarify what has and hasn't happened here in our understanding. We have not cut $700 million in aid to Pakistan," State Department spokesperson said.
As Pakistan brainstorms to revamp its foreign policy after last month's deadly strike by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said the country will retaliate against all future attacks, but also made it clear that Islamabad is not taking its ties with the United States to a point of no return. Khar made the remarks as she presided over a session of the two-day meeting of envoys convened to frame recommendations for a foreign policy revamp
The United States on Monday said it will vacate the Shamsi airbase in Balochistan, believed to be used by the Central Investigation Agency-operated drones, by December 11 deadline set by Pakistan following the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation strike that killed 24 of its soldiers.
United States-led North Atlantic Treaty Organisation troops in Afghanistan have been ordered not to approach the buffer zone on the Af-Pak border in order to avoid recurrence of last week's air strike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.
The United States said it was in early stages of investigation into the cross-border North Atlantic Treaty Organisation air raid that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers and was not apologising to Islamabad, as of now.
The Pakistanis play quid pro quo diplomacy better than India does. They know how to promote their national interests while taking advantage of the needs of the US in the Afghaistan-Pakistan region, notes B Raman.
The Haqqani network is planning to target the United States-led North Atlantic Treaty Organisation forces in Afghanistan from its new bases in the Kurram agency.
Most of the Afghan Taliban frontier leadership had reportedly been sheltered in Karachi under a Pakistani security establishment's secret programme -- the New Karachi Project -- according to a newspaper report.
Russia ruled out joining the US-dominated North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's military bloc on Tuesday saying such a move would jeopardise its sovereignty as it asserted that it was capable of ensuring its security.
The chain of events that led to ousted Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's death continue to remain very much in dispute.
Nirupama Rao, India's new ambassador to the United States, has defended India's stand on Libya and Syria, which stands in stark contrast to that of the US and its allies in the NATO. In the interaction that followed her keynote address at the third Brookings-FICCI Strategic Dialogue on US-India Relations, Rao said, "Let me say that we deeply value the consultations that we had with the United States on issues related to the Arab Spring and the upheavals that we have seen".
United States President Barack Obama on Tuesday said having a large footprint in Afghanistan can be "counter-productive" in the long run and that it was time to pull back troops and turn attention to domestic woes, as the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation alliance agreed on a 2014 end to the Afghan mission.
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is still believed to be inside the country, even as the rebel forces have entered the capital Tripoli, the Pentagon has said. =
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