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The White House has ruled out
President Barack Obama
offering “formal condolences”
to Pakistan over the killing of its
24 soldiers in a Nato strike, as
suggested by his top diplomat in
Islamabad in a desperate bid to
salvage deteriorating ties, a
media report said today.“The
White House has decided that
President Obama will not offer
formal condolences- at least for
now- to Pakistan for the deaths
of two dozen soldiers in Nato
airstrikes last week, overruling
State Department officials who
argued for such a show of
remorse to help salvage
America's relationship with
Pakistan,” 'The New York Times'
said, reflecting the mood
prevailing in the administration
on Pakistan right now.The
request for this came on
Monday, two days after the
Nato attack, from US envoy to
Pakistan Mr Cameron Munter,
who said that a formal video
message from President Obama
was needed to help prevent the
rapidly deteriorating relations
between the two countries
from cratering, administration
officials were quoted as saying
by the daily.“The Ambassador in
a video conference from
Islamabad, said that anger in
Pakistan had reached a fever
pitch, and that the USA needed
to move to defuse it as quickly
as possible,” the officials
said.The suggestion from the
top American diplomat in
Pakistan was opposed by the
Pentagon, which argued that
such a move would be
demoralising for their forces
and noted that the statement of
Secretary of State Mrs Hillary
Clinton in this regard was
enough. “Some administration
aides also worried that if Mr
Obama were to overrule the
military and apologise to
Pakistan, such a step could
become fodder for his
Republican opponents in the
presidential campaign,” several
officials, who declined to be
named because they were not
authorised to speak publicly,
told the daily.The White House
has said that Mr Obama will not
comment on it till the
investigations are over, the
paper reported.On Tuesday, the
US Central Command (CENTCOM)
ordered an investigation into
the incident in which officials of
both the Afghan and Pakistan
governments have been invited
to participate.