Barack Obama not to offer formal condolences to Pakistan for NATO strike

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 on Thursday.

“The White House has decided that president Obama will not offer formal condolences — at least for now — to Pakistan for the deaths of soldiers , 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.

The request for this came on Monday, two days after the attack, from US envoy to Pakistan Cameron Munter, who said that a formal video message from Obama was needed to help prevent the rapidly deteriorating relations between the two countries from cratering.

“The ambassador, speaking by video conference from Islamabad, said that anger in Pakistan had reached a fever pitch, and that US needed to move to defuse it as quickly as possible,” the officials said.

On Thursday, Munter condoled the “tragic” deaths of 24 Pakistani soldiers, and hoped the two sides would emerge from the crisis as “stronger partners” . He also reiterated the US administration’s offer to probe the incident.