Washington: The State Department Wednesday said the US favors using Pakistani overland routes for traditional movement of equipment out of Afghanistan and expressed the hope that the current situation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), with regard to Torkham route, would not have a long-term impact.
“We favor shipping cargo via Pakistan because of the cost. And hopefully I don’t anticipate that there will be any long-term impact to our retrograde movement because of the current situation,” Deputy Spokesperson of the US State Department Marie Harf said at the daily briefing.
She was responding to a question about the viability of Pakistani ground lines for communication (GLOCs) for US shipment of equipment as the US, currently moving cargo out of landlocked Afghanistan in view of 2014 drawdown, temporarily suspended shipments through the Torkham Pass.
The Pentagon on Tuesday said it had voluntarily halted the movement of cargo through Torkham gate in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where routes have been closed due to protest against US drone strikes.
Right now, she said, the US is not able to make shipments via Torkham, one of the GLOCs,because it does not think that it is safe for drivers to perform their work.
She explained in reply to a question that the US has been working to bring flexibility and redundancy into its overall system for use of air, sea and ground transports because sometime there are things happening and it cannot use a certain transport route.
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