WASHINGTON: A top US senator warned Pakistan Sunday that there are strings attached to financial aid from the United States, and urged greater cooperation following cross-border NATO air strikes that killed 26 Pakistani troops.
"There is a lot of diplomacy that has to occur and they need to understand that our support for them financially is dependent on their cooperation with us," Republican Senator Jon Kyl said on the Fox News Sunday talk show.
The air strikes Saturday have brought another chill to already frosty relations between the two uneasy allies, with Islamabad still a key partner for US military operations in neighboring Pakistan.
The United States, which depends on Pakistan as a vital life-line to supply 130,000 foreign troops fighting in landlocked Afghanistan, has scrambled to salvage the alliance.
In a joint statement, US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have offered "deepest condolences" and said they backed "NATO's intention to investigate immediately."
Senator Dick Durbin, a top Democrat, echoed Clinton and Panetta's statement, offering condolences, but warned that the crisis would likely further endanger US troops in the region.
"As difficult as it is to find our way through this diplomatic morass, between the incompetence and corruption in Afghanistan, and complicity in parts of Pakistan, our soldiers are caught right in the middle of this at a time when they're trying to bring peace to this region," he said.
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