ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — U.S. Sen. John Kerry said Wednesday he is hopeful that the bitter dispute over an American embassy worker detained in Pakistan will be resolved “in the next few days.”
Mr. Kerry, who rushed to Pakistan to try to prevent a diplomatic meltdown over the continued detention of American Raymond Davis, sounded upbeat at the end of two days of meetings with senior Pakistani government officials and opposition powerbrokers.
The United States says that Mr. Davis shot two Pakistanis in self-defense as they tried to rob him Jan. 27 and that his detention is illegal under international agreements covering diplomats.
Pakistani leaders, fearful of stoking more outrage in a public already rife with anti-U.S. sentiment, have said the matter is up to the courts to decide.
Mr. Davis‘ next court hearing is set for Thursday.
“I look forward in the next few days, hopefully, to finding the ways that we all agreed on — that we can find — in order to resolve this issue,” Mr. Kerry told reporters before boarding a plane in the Pakistani capital.
The dispute has become a bitter point of contention between the United States and Pakistan, a key ally in the war in Afghanistan. The senator said his meetings were encouraging and stressed that all involved said they wanted and expected to end the standoff amicably.
“Now everybody has to work in good will to make the words mean something,” Mr. Kerry said. “They will only mean something with actions that result in an appropriate and judicious outcome being accomplished. I think that will be done.”
But Mr. Kerry’s upbeat attitude contrasted with a sense of internal divisions within Pakistan's government over how to handle the case.
Pakistan’s former foreign minister on Wednesday maintained, without elaborating, that legal advisers told him Mr. Davis did not qualify for “blanket” diplomatic immunity. But another government official told the Associated Press on Tuesday that the government would tell the court that most of its legal experts had decided that Mr. Davis is immune from prosecution.
Shah Mahmood Qureshi, the foreign minister who stepped down earlier this month during a Cabinet shake-up but retains influence, reiterated his stance after meeting with Mr. Kerry — an indication that the American politician may have a rocky time persuading Pakistan to free the 36-year-old Mr. Davis.
The Pakistani government is also under intense public pressure; crowds of protesters have urged the government in recent weeks to try Mr. Davis.
In the southern city of Karachi on Wednesday, dozens of young men protested U.S. efforts to win Mr. Davis‘ release. About 50 members of an Islamist political party gathered outside the Karachi Press Club chanting, “Down with America!” They also torched effigies of President Obama and Mr. Kerry.
Upon arriving in Pakistan late Tuesday, Mr. Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat, reached out to Pakistan's government and people. He expressed regret over the loss of lives and promised that the United States will conduct a criminal investigation into the shooting if Mr. Davis is released.
On Wednesday, Mr. Kerry also met with President Asif Ali Zardari; Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the head of the army; and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.
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