Fickle Friends

After six decades of an uneasy alliance and two massive wars fought together Pakistan and the US are still teetering on the edge of a diplomatic torpor. The deadlock in relations has been aggravating ever since Bin Laden's capture in Abbotabad earlier this year and worsened recently following the Kabul attacks where far from blaming its own lapse in security in the so called 'Ring of Steel' Ambassador Cameron Munter accused Pakistan of harboring the Haqqani Network during an interview with Radio Pakistan. In response to which Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani told journalists that it was Washington's turn to try and salvage its relationship with Pakistan.

The two countries' top military generals met in Spain on Friday for the first time following the US raid that killed Bin Laden. The backdrop for this meeting isn't a pleasant one: a cut of $2.7 billion in aid to Pakistan following its expulsion of two hundred US military trainers off its soil; America's allegations on Pakistan abetting the Haqqani Network's attack on Kabul and Joe Bidens caustic remarks against Pakistan on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 did not make the meeting a happy one. Moreover a diplomatic standstill lasting weeks despite recent events involving Dr Warren Weinsteins abduction and Younis al-Mauritanis arrest has left Islamabad in a haze.

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