In a rebuff to Pakistan President Asif Ali Zar-dari, US President Barack Obama refused to meet him on the margins of the Nato summit in Chicago as the two countries failed to strike a deal on reopening the Nato supply lines to Afghanistan.
Mr Zardari, who flew to Chicago with hopes of lifting his stature after a meeting with Mr Obama, was preparing to leave empty-handed as the two countries continued to feel the repercussions of a Nato airstrike last November that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, an incident for which the US President offered condolences but no apology.
As the two-day Nato su-mmit opened in Chicago Sunday evening, Mr Obama remained at loggerheads with Mr Zardari, refusing even to meet him without a deal on the supply routes, which both countries’ officials admitted would not be coming soon, the US media reported on Monday. White Hou-se deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said Mr Obama could not meet Mr Zardari as he had a “full slate of summit meetings to attend”.
A deal to reopen the supply lines fell apart as Mr Obama began talks on ending Nato’s combat role in Afghanistan in 2013, the New York Times reported, adding that the failure to strike a deal ahead of the summit had injected new tension into the US-Pakistani relationship.