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Pakistan-U.S. relations can only continue with mutual respect: Pakistani PM

28 November 2011 22:55 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Pakistani Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani said on Monday Pakistan would reassess its arrangements with the NATO and ISAF, and its relationship with the United States can only continue with mutual respect and mutual interest, according to the APP, a government-run news agency in Pakistan, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

In an interview with a foreign media, Pakistani Prime Minister Gilani said at the moment Pakistan was not getting respect from the United States. He said Pakistan was re-evaluating its relationship with the United States.

He said in accordance with the wishes of the masses, Pakistan’s relations with the United States should be based on trust, equality and mutual benefit.

"We have no other option except to accept the will of the people," he said, adding that Pakistan wanted to maintain its relationship with the United States as long as there was mutual respect and respect for Pakistani sovereignty.

Gilani highlighted incidents such as the killing of the Pakistani troops and a U.S. raid into Pakistan to kill Osama bin Laden as violations of his country’s sovereignty.

Previously, he said, there was the issue of Raymond Davis and the issue of Osama bin Laden, then there were accusations including accusation from Afghanistan of the killing of Prof. Burhanuddin Rabbani.

"These are some of the blame games. There is no political space left for the political leadership of Pakistan and the military leadership, then how we can cooperate in this difficult situation, " he said.

The Prime Minister made it clear that relations with the NATO and ISAF have reached a saturation point and now business will be no more usual.

"Business as usual will not be there. We have to have something bigger that satisfies my nation and entire country. We have to review our ties with NATO and Allied forces. This is a saturation point. We are reviewing the situation and our relationship for future with the US, NATO and ISAF," said Gilani.

He said Pakistan always played a positive role in bringing stability to Afghanistan. He said Pakistan had already said that it was ready to support any initiative on Afghanistan, which is Afghan-led and Afghan-owned. But this support will not be at the cost of sovereignty of Pakistan, he added.

The Prime Minister also said Pakistan had not yet decided whether to boycott next month’s Bonn conference on the future of Afghanistan.

Referring to the Mohmand Agency incident, the Prime Minister said "You cannot win any war without support of the masses. We need the people with us and such sort of incidents are making people moving away."