Pakistan Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar has said the country had offered the U.S. to jointly carry out drone strikes in the restive Tribal Areas, but the Obama administration turned down the proposal.
Mukhtar said Pakistan was willing to maintain its relations with the U.S. and had asked Washington to stop drone strikes in Pakistan, reports the Daily Times.
He however admitted, it would be a violation of international laws if the NATO supply routes which were blocked following a NATO air strike in the Afghanistan border that killed at least 24 Pakistani troops last year, were not restored.
Meanwhile, a Pakistani official told The Express Tribune that the Obama administration was increasingly concerned over the delay in the reopening of the vital NATO supply routes for foreign forces stationed in Afghanistan.
Washington is said to have threatened Islamabad with ‘multiple repercussions’, if the six-month-long blockade of NATO supplies is not lifted, sources said.
According to sources, the implications include a halt in U.S. assistance for the country’s fragile economy and squeezing the political space available to the ruling Pakistan People’s Party by relying on other political groups.
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