Pakistan hints at end to Nato blockade

Pakistan signalled on Thursday that it could shortly end a more than two-month blockade on NATO supplies entering Afghanistan for foreign forces.Islamabad shut the border and ordered a review of its US alliance after air strikes killed 24 Pakistani soldiers on November 26, in what NATO and the US military later blamed on a series of mistakes by both sides.Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar told reporters that parliament, tasked with adopting the review, would “hopefully” meet next week.“I cannot pre-empt what the parliament is going to decide but I would assume that should not be so much of a problem,” she said when asked if the recommendations would include re-opening the border.Responding as to when parliament would pass the review, she said: “I’m going to hopefully ensure and push it very hard that it is no later than within a week... first half of February is probable.” She said Pakistan would encourage Afghan insurgent groups like the Haqqani network and the Taliban to pursue peace if asked by Afghanistan.Khar also told reporters that the Afghan reconciliation process was active on several fronts but was far from producing results.Khar was speaking after a trip to Kabul. She said “lots of ill will” between the traditionally uneasy neighbours, whose ties have been strained in recent months, had faded. She said Pakistan was willing to do whatever Afghans wanted to end 10 years of war with the Taliban. Khar sought to refute perceptions that Islamabad was an obstacle to peace.She said Karzai was due in Islamabad in the middle of the month and that she would travel with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to Qatar, where the Taliban has set up a liaison office for talks with the Americans.She said it was “not in anyone’s interest” for Afghanistan to slide back into the chaos of the past, but said Pakistan had “so far” not played any substantial role in the contacts there between the Americans and the Taliban.Analysts say that Kabul and Islamabad have felt sidelined by the Qatar contacts. Khar did not comment explicitly, but said it was imperative that the Afghans were central to any eventual peace process, still “miles away”.“Who can play this central role? Not Pakistan, the US, Germany, the UK, Qataris, Saudis or anyone, it has to be the Afghans.”She was determined to distance from Pakistan being in any way an independent actor in an effective peace process.“It is Afghanistan to decide and as a friendly neighbour, it is our job and responsibility and will to stand strongly behind that. The only prerequisite that Pakistan has is that it should be an Afghan-led, Afghan-owned and Afghan-driven, Afghan-backed process which has the ownership of Afghan people.”A leaked NATO report based on material from interrogations of more than 4,000 captured Taliban and Al-Qaeda operatives, accused Pakistan’s security services of still backing the Taliban.Khar took a swipe, saying that media reports and leaks do not reflect Pakistan’s “dialogue” with NATO and the United States.“Pakistan would not want to be seen to be working at counter purposes with the rest of the world, including the Westerners, NATO, ISAF, US. It will be in our interest to be able to assist them in whatever way we can,” she said. Islamabad - The Nations