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Humiliated Zardari set to return empty handed as adamant Obama refuses to meet | The deal to reopen the NATO supply lines through Pakistan to Afghanistan fell apart after U.S. President Barack Obama remained at loggerheads with Pakistan
President Asif Ali Zardari, refusing even to meet with him without an agreement
on the supply routes. Zardari, who flew to Chicago for a two-day NATO summit with
hopes of meeting with Obama, is prepared to leave empty-handed, reports the New
York Times. Pakistan had closed the NATO routes into Afghanistan after an U.S.
air raid last November killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, for which Obama has offered
condolences but no apology. "This breakdown in the U.S. and Pakistan relationship
has come down to a fixation of this apology issue," said Vali Nasr, a former State
Department adviser on Pakistan . The combination of no apology and no meeting,
Nasr added, "will send a powerfully humiliating message back to Pakistan ." U.S.
and Pakistani officials expressed optimism last week that an agreement on reopening
of supply routes was imminent. It was hoped that an invitation for Pakistan to
attend the summit would help in bridging the gap between the two sides, states
the paper. The failure to strike a deal on the supply routes ahead of the summit
injects new tension into the relationship. "When NATO extended the invitation,
we thought it would move the Pakistanis off the dime," a senior American official
said. Without the deal, "it's going to be really uncomfortable" for Mr. Zardari
at the summit, which will end on Monday, he added. American officials said the
main sticking point was the amount NATO would pay for each truck carrying supplies
from Karachi to the Afghan border. Before the closing, the payment per truck was
about 250 dollars. Pakistan is now asking for "upward of 5,000 dollars" for each
truck, the official said.
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