WASHINGTON: The United States on Tuesday said it continued discussions with Pakistan towards re-opening the supply routes into Afghanistan as the Pentagon dismissed the impression that negotiations with Islamabad had been cut off.
“The team that negotiated directly with Pakistan has mostly left Pakistan. It’s important to note though that we do continue dialogue through ODRP (Office of Defense Representative) in Islamabad. So it is not as if we that we have completely cut off discussions altogether,” Press Secretary at the Department of Defense George Little said.
“We continue to have dialogue on this issue. Yes the negotiating team is coming home for what we hope will be a short period of time. We hope that GLOCs (ground lines of communication) are opened soon. And we look forward to having our officials go back to Islamabad to seal the deal at some point in near future,” he said at a Pentagon briefing.
The two sides have not reached agreement obviously on every single issue but agree on many of the technicalities.
The Press Secretary would not go into specifics of negotiations but believed there is a window of opportunity to reopen the ground supply routes.
Pentagon Spokesman Capt John Kirby added the teams have themselves taken it as far as they can right and now it is up to Pakistan to make decisions.