Washington, May 29 (IANS): The US is cooperating with India "very closely on this critical and very complex issue" of providing access to Pakistani-American terror suspect David Coleman Headley, says a US official without committing whether New Delhi would get such access.
"Let me just say on that that we are very pleased that the United States and India have been able to cooperate very closely on this critical and very complex issue," Assistant Secretary of State Robert O. Blake told reporters Friday when asked about "one of the sticking points of India-US relations."
"And we continue to work very hard with our Indian counterparts to move forward on that. But I don't have anything more to say. I'd just refer you to the Department of Justice for further comment," he said.
Asked if he couldn't say in so many whether US was going to give access to India, Blake said: "I'm not in a position to."
"I don't think it's a sticking point. I think that we've got - again, we've got a good dialogue and I think we'll work out a way forward," he added when asked if this was a sticking point ahead of the inaugural US-India strategic dialogue here next week.
However, an Indian diplomat insisted that India would get access to Headley soon as promised by President Barack Obama during his meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here last month.