ISLAMABAD (Reuters) ? Ties between the United States and Pakistan are still on hold over a NATO cross-border air attack and Washington should not push Islamabad to go after militant groups including the Haqqani network or bring them to any Afghan peace process, Pakistan's foreign minister told Reuters on Thursday.
"Now that the re-evaluation process is underway as we speak, so till the time that that re-evaluation process in not complete, we cannot start the re-engagement," Hina Rabbani Khar said in an interview.
The November 26 NATO attack, which killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, plunged relations between Washington and Islamabad to their lowest levels in years.
The United States sees Pakistan as critical to its efforts to wind down the war in neighboring Afghanistan, where U.S.-led NATO forces are battling a stubborn Taliban insurgency.
But the NATO incident exacerbated a crisis in relations which erupted after U.S. special forces killed Osama bin Laden in a unilateral raid on Pakistani soil in May last year which embarrassed Pakistan's powerful military.
"I would say they (ties) are conveniently on hold until we start re-engaging," said Khar.
The United States has long sought Pakistani cooperation in tackling the Haqqani network, the Afghan insurgent group now seen as the gravest threat to NATO and Afghan troops.
Pakistan argues that the United States needs to be patient and gain a greater understanding of the region's complexities before acting, and that pressure would only hurt efforts to pacify Afghanistan.
"'Push' is never wise. I think that every country must be allowed to develop their own strategy and their own timing," said a confident Khar, wearing a traditional head scarf and a colorful shawl.
(Reporting by Michael Georgy and Chris Allbritton; Editing by Ed Lane)
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