US apology over NATO air strikes in Pakistan 'not good enough', says Rabbani Khar

Islamabad, Mar 28 (ANI): Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar has said that only an apology by the US for the NATO air strike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers is not good enough.

"The incident was grave enough for an apology not to be good enough," The Nation quoted Khar, as saying. This did require a complete re-look at the terms of engagement with the United States of America," she added.

In November, US-Pakistan relations plunged to an all-time low when NATO fighter jets attacked a Pakistani checkpoint near the Afghan border, killing 24 Pakistani soldiers. The US government expressed regret over the incident, but has yet to issue a direct apology.

The NATO air strike was the latest in a string of incidents that increased tensions between Islamabad and Washington, including the killing of two Pakistani men by a CIA contractor and the US decision to raid Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan without notifying Pakistani authorities.

But it was the NATO air strike that put some of the most crucial aspects of US-Pakistan relations on hold.

Soon after the incident, Islamabad boycotted a conference on the Afghan peace process in Germany and shut down supply routes used to transport NATO supplies from Karachi to Afghanistan. (ANI)