Pakistan expects to re-open supply routes to Nato forces in Afghanistan, halted after a Nato cross-border air attack killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November, but will impose tariffs, a senior security official told Reuters on Thursday. The move suggests tensions with the United States and Nato have eased, but more progress is needed for the kind of co-operation necessary to fight militancy in the border region which US President Barack Obama has called the world's most dangerous place.
The official said the fees were designed to both express continued anger over the November 26 attack and raise funds for the state to fight home-grown Taliban militants blamed for many of the suicide bombings across the country. "The tariffs will cover everything from the port to security to roads, which after all belong to Pakistan," the security official, who asked to remain anonymous, told Reuters.
No date was given for reopening the supply routes. trade ministry was working out details of the tariffs, said the official. Asked if the re-opening was a sign that the crisis in relations could be tackled, the official said there was some way to go before normalcy was possible.
The two land routes to Afghanistan through Pakistan account for just under a third of all cargo that the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) ships into Afghanistan. "They felt it would be humiliating. The talks are not making progress," the official said. "If they want to be included in the political system, that is what they will have to do."
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