Top-level US-Pak talks underway to negotiate settlement on Davis standoff
March 6th, 2011 - 5:08 pm ICT by ANIIslamabad, Mar 6(ANI): A top-level dialogue between the United States and Pakistan is underway to excogitate a settlement on the sensitive Raymond Davis issue.
The talks were made public after the US Ambassador in Islamabad, Cameron Munter, called on President Asif Ali Zardari on Saturday and delivered an important message from Washington, The Express Tribune quoted a source, as saying.
After the meeting, Zardari’s spokesperson Farhatullah Babar issued a brief and vague statement, which said that various bilateral issues were discussed between the two sides.
Sources claimed that an article published in The Washington Post by Zardari also came under discussion during the meeting.
A veteran diplomat said thata marked improvement in bilateral ties between Pakistan and the United States “will be visible over the next couple of weeks” when US Special Representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Mark Grossman, will hold talks with top civilian and military leadership of the country.
The ties, which soured rapidly after the arrest of double murder-accused CIA contractor Davis in Lahore on January 27, “are returning to normalcy”, the former diplomat said on the condition of anonymity.
“The process to return the Washington-Islamabad diplomatic affairs to normalcy is under way,” he added, citing two important meetings between top Pakistani-US military leaders in Muscat and Rawalpindi over the past week in this context.
The former diplomat also cited three major developments that indicated leniency on part of Pakistan: (a) It refrained from prosecuting Davis on espionage charges despite the fact that he was put on trial for the Lahore killings (b) Pakistan is no longer demanding the custody of the three US nationals who went into hiding after crushing to death another Pakistani citizen (c) Spying charges were not pressed against another US national Aaron Mark De Haven, who was arrested in Peshawar despite having been found to be involved in questionable activities.
However, the veteran diplomat warned that it would be a “mistake to read this display as an indication that the trust issues have been resolved between the two intelligence agencies”.
“But it is also significant to note that the CIA spokesman George Little said any problems between the two agencies will be sorted out,” he added. (ANI)
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Tags: asif ali zardari, bilateral issues, bilateral ties, cia contractor, de haven, diplomatic affairs, double murder, espionage, lahore, leniency, mark grossman, military leaders, military leadership, muscat, normalcy, peshawar, rawalpindi, raymond davis, standoff, washington post