CHICAGO: Islamabad has taken the first step towards reopening the Nato supply routes and Washington should now apologise over the border air strikes last year which claimed the lives of 24 Pakistani troops and stop drone attacks inside Pakistani territory, says Pakistan’s ambassador to the US.

In an article published in the Chicago Tribune on Sunday, Ambassador Sherry Rehman said normality in relations between Pakistan and the US would promote peace and security in the region.

She said the summit in Chicago which was focussing on the endgame in Afghanistan followed debates on some bills in the House of Representatives that would shape the nature of the relationship.

“The tone of this debate and the diplomacy of the Obama administration will send a clear signal to the 180 million people of Pakistan as to whether the world’s oldest democracy will stand with one of the world’s newest democracies to defeat terrorism and extremism for a politically stable and economically viable South Asia. Many are pessimistic,” she wrote.

Underlining the importance of a series of confidence-building measures that could recast the bilateral relationship, the ambassador said: “If the war against extremism is to succeed, the war of words between democratic allies must end.”

Ms Rehman said the unilateral raid on Abbottabad, the Raymond Davis affair, the Nato air assault on Salalah post, and the continuing unauthorised drone attacks on Pakistani soil had frayed 60-year-old special relationship between the two countries.

Significant progress could be made towards resetting the relationship between the countries if the US were to finally apologise for the battlefield deaths at Salalah, she said.

The US should reimburse the Coalition Support Funds. Washington should also enhance sharing of counter-terrorism intelligence to assist Pakistan military in combating extremism and cease the controversial drone operations that violated Pakistani sovereignty and the norms of international law, she said.—AFP