Pak has right to self-defence, so does US: Pentagon

Washington: As a sovereign nation Pakistan has the right to self-defense, so does the US, the Pentagon has asserted amid reports from Islamabad that Pakistan Army Chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani had issued direction that his commanders on the Af-Pak border can return fire without permission.

Pentagon spokesman Navy Capt John Kirby told reporters that last week’s NATO bombing that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers along the Afghanistan border has had a chilling effect on the relationship between the two countries.

“I think it’s safe to say that the incident has had a chilling effect on our relationship with the Pakistani military, no question about that. Both sides deem it to be as serious as it was,” Kirby told reporters at a Pentagon briefing.

“I’ve seen the comments attributed to General Kayani. I’m certainly not going to speak for him or for the government of Pakistan. But every sovereign nation has the right of self-defense and the right to order their troops to defend themselves. That’s what my understanding is what he did: He reiterated their right of self-defense. We certainly respect that right of his. We have it as well,” Kirby said.

US rules out apology over NATO strike

Meanwhile, the Obama administration has said that it respects Pakistan’s sovereignty but ruled out any apology to Islamabad at this point of time as the probe into last week’s NATO air strike is yet to complete.

“We need to find what happened. We need to get the truth here. We have endeavored to do so through this investigation,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters when asked why the US is not tendering an apology to Pakistan over the NATO bombing last week.

Toner also reiterated US’ commitment to have a strong relationship with Pakistan.

US views this as a tragedy for the Pakistani people, he said, adding the US has expressed its sympathies and condolences to them.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was among the first to reach out to her Pakistani counterpart in the wee hours of the day of incident, he pointed out.

“It speaks to how seriously we take this incident that we immediately launched, via CENTCOM, an investigation that’s looking into all the causes that surround this event. It is not only important that we find out what happened and why it happened, but we need to really get the details because we need to make sure that we prevent this from ever happening again,” he said.

Even as Pakistan has made clear that it would not attend the Bonn conference on Afghanistan in protest against the air strikes, Toner hoped Islamabad would have its presence at the meeting which is being attended by some 85 countries and 15 international organisations.

“We think it would be regrettable if Pakistan were not to attend this conference. We think it’s important for the region, it’s important for the neighbourhood. It’s important that we all work to put Afghanistan on a square and solid footing,” he said, adding US Ambassador to Pakistan is engaged in a series of conversations with the Pakistani leaders in this regard.

US wants them to be there, he said adding Pakistan’s participation in the Bonn conference is valuable. “They’re absolutely critical to Afghanistan’s long-term stability. But we are also going to find a way to keep them involved in the process moving forward,” he noted.

“We have continued to talk to our Pakistani counterparts, and our message has been very clear. First of all, we respect Pakistan’s sovereignty. Secondly, we are committed to this relationship and making it work.

As we’ve said before, we face many shared challenges from extremists, and we need to tackle them together. This is a relationship that’s in both of our national interests, and well as in the interests of Afghanistan, obviously,” Toner said.

“Then finally we have launched an investigation, an ongoing investigation, albeit at its early stages, that will hopefully find the answers to what happened,” the US official said.

Pak not to participate in air strike probe

Pakistan is refusing to participate in the US-led probe into the NATO bombing, the Pentagon has said.

“The Pakistanis have certainly been invited to join the investigation. We believe their participation would be important as we look into this tragic incident. They have elected, to date, not to participate, but we would welcome their participation,” Pentagon press secretary George Little said at a news conference in Washington.

Following last week’s incident, that has created outrage in Pakistan, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) has constituted an investigation to be led by a top official and invited the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan to participate in it.

The International Assistance Security Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan would too be part of the investigation, which has to be completed by 23 December.

“The relationship with Pakistan remains very important to the United States. We think that cooperation with Pakistan on a variety of fronts, to include counterterrorism, is essential.

“We realise the bumps in the road that we’ve experienced over the past several months, but we’re going to work very hard to work with our Pakistani counterparts to get over this latest bump in the road,” Little said.

PTI