US delays official Salala attack apology: Report

US delayed apology after riots over the Quran-burning incident in Afghanistan earlier in the week.

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.