The US is trying to break deadlocked talks with Pakistan over reopening a route for Nato troop supplies into Afghanistan - a deal that has proven elusive due to Islamabad's demands for more money and Washington's refusal to apologise for accidentally killing Pakistani forces.
Now the US may have a little more leverage on its side, thanks to an agreement struck with some Central Asian countries to carry Nato equipment out through their territory. Before this week's agreement, Pakistan provided the only available land route to pull out gear. Peter Lavoy, a senior Defence Department official, is expected in Islamabad at the end of the week to try to resolve the current dispute.
Pakistan first closed the supply line in retaliation for US airstrikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November. Prior to the attack, the US and other Nato countries shipped about 30 percent of their nonlethal supplies through Pakistan into southern Afghanistan.
Since then, the coalition compensated by using a longer, more costly route that runs through northern Afghanistan, Central Asia and Russia. This alternative route was only available to ship supplies into Afghanistan until Monday, when Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan agreed to allow the coalition to withdraw equipment as well. Nato already has an agreement with Russia for the withdrawal of material.
Monday's deal means that the coalition will be able to ship back to Europe tens of thousands of vehicles, containers and other items as it seeks to withdraw most combat forces from Afghanistan by the end of 2014. "I think this will be an advantage for the US and leverage over Pakistan, especially against those who said the US was dependent and had no other choice," said Pakistani defence analyst Hasan-Askari Rizvi. "I think greater realism will dawn on Pakistani policymakers that the US has shown it can use the northern channel, although it will be expensive and take more time."
It's not exactly clear how much more expensive the northern route is compared to the one that was previously used via the Pakistani port of Karachi. The top US and Nato commander in Afghanistan, General John Allen, said recently that the northern supply line through Central Asia was twice as expensive as the one through Pakistan. But Pentagon figures obtained by The Associated Press in mid-January indicated the US was paying six times as much to use the northern route.
Before Pakistan closed the southern route because of the November attack, it was charging $250 per truck. Now it is demanding $5,000 per truck, while the US has countered with an offer of $500. "If most of the weapons systems and equipment ends up being transported out through the northern route, it means Pakistan would be losing out on a great opportunity," said Talat Masood, a Pakistani defence analyst and retired army general. "It would be losing out both in terms of its economy and its relations with Nato."
President Barack Obama made clear US anger at Islamabad's refusal to reopen the supply line at a Nato summit at the end of May in Chicago, where he refused to have a one-on-one meeting with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari. The US is also deeply frustrated with Pakistan's lack of commitment to going after the Haqqani network, a terrorist group that has used Pakistani territory to launch attacks against Americans in Afghanistan, including an attack last year against the US Embassy in Kabul.
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