Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: A breakthrough on the NATO supply line issue is likely within couple of days as authorities from Pakistan and US have started crucial talks to end the six-month long blockade of supplies for foreign troops in Afghanistan, SAMAA reports.

Sources said both the countries may ink an accord on the NATO supply line, but only after Washington’s formal apology over Salala check post attack which left 24 Pakistani soldiers dead in November 2011.

Pakistan’s Ambassador to US, Sherry Rehman, has also arrived in Pakistan from Washington and a US delegation from Afghanistan, led by Deputy Secretary of the Defence Department James Millers, is also likely to join the talks in Islamabad.

“Rehman is called back for consultations and she will brief a crucial meeting of Defence Committee of the Cabinet convened by the Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf on Tuesday,” sources said.

Federal Defence Minister Naved Qamar, Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, chief of armed forces and Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Khalid Shamim Wynnne will also attend Tuesday’s meeting of the committee which is Pakistan's highest decision-making body on security issues.

In another related development, PM Raja Pervez called on President Asif Ali Zardari and reportedly exchanged views over the NATO supply resumption issue.

Zardari came back home from Britain on Monday, cutting shorting his visit in the wake of crucial talks in the country.

Finance Minister Hafeez Sheikh also called on PM Raja and briefed him over the terms and conditions decided with the US authorities regarding payment for NATO containers.

Foreign Office spokesman Moazzam Khan was quoted by state-run media as saying that a final decision regarding the reopening of NATO supply routes “is yet to be made,” and that the dialogues process will go on.

On Wednesday, General John R. Allen, Commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), arrived in Islamabad and held a meeting with Pakistan’s army chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, reportedly on border issues and the NATO supply line. -- SAMAA