NATO has struck a deal with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan to remove equipment through their territories as it winds down the Afghan operation, NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Monday. “We reached agreement on reverse transit from Afghanistan with three Central Asian partners: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan,” Rasmussen said at a news conference.Transit routes for the withdrawal are proving a major headache for the US-led ISAF operation in Afghanistan, with massive ammounts of materiel dispatched in the decade-long war to be pulled out by the end-2014 deadline from a country ringed by high mountain passes.The Brussels-headquartered alliance is also discussing with Russia the possibility of using Vostochny airport near Ulyanovsk, 900 kilometres (560 miles) east of Moscow, as a transit centre for non-lethal equipment from Afghanistan. Though it is being argued that the deal would put pressure on Islamabad to ‘ease its negotiating stance’, the fact is that it would relieve it of a lot of pressure coming from powerful internal forces against the restoration of the route. The instability percieved to be caused by a war right next door, begun by deceit and conducted by arbitrarily applied international laws, has hardened the Pakistanis’ opposition of the war on terror and given rise to a groundswell of anti-US feeling in the country. However, the US’ adoption of an uncompromising posture has created further dilemmas for Islamabad, thus, further complicating the issue of Nato supplies. For instance, not only does it term Pakistan’s legitimate preconditions for letting the Nato goods pass through its territory extortion, but has also heaped insult to injury after time and again refusing to apologise for the tragic Salalah attack. Pakistan allowed almost free for all passage of goods and equipment for ten longs years at the cost of losses worth billions of dollar to its road infrastructure and that is why the United States is finding it difficult to agree to imposition of reasonable charges to compensate for such damages. We believe that the latest report is just aimed at pressurizing Pakistan on the issue of levy of the proposed tax and Islamabad must not give it any weight. This is because we have been hearing such reports of so-called Northern Distribution Network for many years but Americans know it fully well that the northern route was not only six times more costly but also exposes the military and other hardware to immense security threats both from militants and the Russian Federation. Otherwise too, there should be no worry for us as recommendations of the parliament clearly say that Pakistan will not allow transit of arms and ammunition through its territory and even if NATO has made this arrangement with CARs for reverse transportation, this would be in line with our parliamentary recommendations. As for the issue of restoration of the supply route, the two sides should resolve the issue through dialogue on the basis of sovereign equality.
pk.shafaqna.com
