Pakistan- US relations

US vacates airbase in Pakistan

The United States has vacated a Pakistani airbase as Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani warned the blocking of Nato convoys into Afghanistan could last several weeks.

the Telegraph, 

11 December, 2011

Pakistan stopped the convoys and gave a deadline of Sunday for the base to be vacated as anger grew over Nato air strikes on Nov 26 that killed 24 soldiers.

Mr Gilani said on Sunday he still believed the attacks had been deliberate and pre-planned by Nato and that “we don’t trust each other”.

“When there are new rules of engagement with the United States ... then I think we should trust each other better,” he told the BBC.

“Yes there is a credibility gap, we are working together and still we don’t trust each other.”

Pakistan’s military said in a statement on Sunday that the last flight carrying US personnel and equipment had left Shamsi airbase, in the southwestern province of Baluchistan.

The base was widely believed to have been used in covert CIA drone attacks against the Taliban and al-Qaeda commanders in northwest Pakistan’s tribal areas, which border Afghanistan.

“The control of the base has been taken over by the Army,” the statement said. US Ambassador to Islamabad Cameron Munter said last week: “We are complying with the request.”

The US has insisted that the covert drone war – which had tacit Pakistani consent – would not be affected by the closure of the base as Predator and Reaper drones could be flown out of Afghanistan.

However, the closure of the base and the blocking of convoys, which is now into its third week, show the extent to which relations between the two allies had hit their lowest ebb since the US launched the war in Afghanistan ten years ago, coming at the end of a year during which Osama bin Laden was killed having been living in a Pakistan army garrison town.

Nearly half of all cargo bound for Nato-led forces runs through Pakistan. Roughly 140,000 foreign troops, including about 97,000 Americans, rely on supplies from outside Afghanistan for the decade-long war effort.

Last week, over 20 Nato fuel tankers were destroyed by rocket fire as unknown gunmen launched an attack on a stranded convoy at a truck park near the south-western city of Quetta.

Islamabad has so far refused to take part in a US investigation into the air strikes, and decided to boycott the Bonn Conference on the future of Afghanistan earlier this month.

Mr Gilani also denied speculation of an army coup in Pakistan following President Asif Ali Zardari’s trip to Dubai to be treated for a reported “mini stroke”. “Rumours are rumours,” Mr Gilani said, denying that Mr Zardari had had a stroke and saying he was recovering well.