Khyber News

RAWALPINDI: Pakistan and United States Tuesday signed a deal governing arrangements for Nato convoys travelling to Afghanistan, seeking to draw a line under a seven-month border blockade.

The agreement is part of efforts by the “war on terror” allies to patch up their fractious relationship, which plunged into crisis last year over the US raid that killed Osama bin Laden hiding in Pakistan and the air strikes.

It comes just one day before the head of Pakistani intelligence, Lieutenant General Zaheer ul-Islam, begins a three-day visit to Washington for talks with the head of the CIA, which has been interpreted as another sign of a gradual rapprochement.

Under the agreement inked in Rawalpindi, the United States will release $1.1 billion under the Coalition Support Fund to reimburse the troubled nation for fighting militants within its borders.

Officials at the ceremony gave no details of the Memorandum of Understanding or MoU, nor did they release a copy at a news conference.

Guidelines laid out by the Pakistani parliament earlier this year insisted that in future no weapons and ammunition be transported through the country, though Western officials say this never happened in the first place.

A Pakistani security official said the agreement gave Islamabad the right to refuse or reject any shipment and special radio chips would be fitted to containers for monitoring.

Richard Hoagland, the deputy US ambassador to Islamabad who signed the agreement on behalf of Washington, hailed it as a “demonstration of increased transparency and openness” between the two governments.

Officials closed the Torkham border crossing, the quickest route to Kabul from the port city of Karachi, to Nato traffic on Thursday over security fears.

The Pakistani Taliban have vowed to attack Nato supplies and last Tuesday, one of the truck drivers was shot dead in the northwestern town of Jamrud.

Pakistani Defence Secretary Asif Yasin Malik, who attended the ceremony, said the deal would contribute to the stability of the region and hailed it as a “landmark event”.-- Agencies