Jason Ditz, January 02, 2012
Speaking today NATO spokesman Brigadier General Carsten Jacobson called for Pakistan to reopen the supply route to NATO occupation forces in Afghanistan through the northern Pakistani border, saying the closure was damaging the economy of Afghanistan.
Pakistan closed the border following a November 26 US attack on a pair of military bases across the border, and has kept the closure in place after a US report insisted the attack, which killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, was “appropriate.”
NATO has been downplaying the closure since it began, insisting that the much more expensive route through the former Soviet Union would keep supplies flowing. Russia has also threatened to block this route over a missile defense shield dispute.
Jacobson claimed that the closure had done serious damage to both Afghanistan and Pakistan’s economies, and was causing shortages of stable goods inside Afghanistan. He did not indicate that NATO would do anything about such shortages, though he did reiterate that NATO’s occupation would not be affected.
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