USA TODAY: … Deputy National Security adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters traveling with President Obama on Saturday night that negotiations are ongoing and expressed confidence that the issue will be resolved, but not necessarily quickly.
The Pakistanis closed the U.S. military supply routes into Afghanistan as retribution after a cross-border strike by NATO last November left 24 of their soldiers dead. Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari accepted an invitation last week to attend the summit, raising speculation that a deal might be in the works. But as of Saturday night, there were no plans for the two leaders to meet for a bilateral meeting during the summit. Rhodes downplayed the absence of an Obama-Zardari meeting on the schedule in Chicago, noting that the supply route impasse did not prevent Obama from meeting Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul in March…
Afghanistan will be the central topic at this weekend’s summit. The president flew to Afghanistan earlier this month to announce the end of the U.S. combat mission in 2014 and to sign a strategic agreement with President Hamid Karzai that would assure the Afghans assistance in training their military until 2024… (more)
