ISLAMABAD: US stymied a planned official apology over the November 26 attack, The New York Times reported on Friday.
According to their report, the US had arranged for General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to call his Pakistani counterpart in Chief of the Armed Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani on Thursday, and extend an official apology, the paper said, citing a Defence Department official.
However, following reports that some NATO troops had burnt the Quran in Afghanistan earlier in the week, the ensuing protests had corrupted a relatively amicable environment to deliver that apology, the paper reported.
Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton was to amplify that apology in her meeting with Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar in the UK on Friday. However, with the plan scuppered, Clinton gave a speech that reached out to Pakistan, but offered no apology.
The paper further cited a Pakistani official that the delay was to the benefit of some in Pakistan. They preferred if the apology came in mid-March, when the Parliament would be convening on hammering out a policy towards the US.
The apology may contribute to a thaw in relations between US and Pakistan, and a possible reopening of the ground supply routes. Pakistan shut down ground supplies after NATO forces pounded two Pakistani checkposts on November 26, killing 26 soldiers.
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Apology or no Apology .. It doesn't make any difference. Its an inevitable phenomena that US is a history and soon Taliban will rule places even outside Afghanistan border, with more authority and strictly no matter how much 'The Beghairat Brigade' become disgusted
No no please dont aplogize , we'll shortly resume all supplies and forget the blood of young brave soldiers, We are Dead NATION
There was another apology to be made and the US is not big on apologies so its really hard rendering out two in the same week,