Also on Friday, Pakistan placed travel restrictions on United States diplomats based in the country, the latest in a series of retaliatory measures that threaten to plunge already strained relations to their worst level in years. The restrictions in Pakistan were imposed on the same day that the United States barred diplomats working at the Pakistan Embassy in Washington from traveling outside a 25-mile radius around the city without approval. The United States has long complained that the police and security officials in Pakistan frequently harass American diplomats and their staff with traffic stops and citations that require considerable time and effort to resolve. Six weeks ago, the State Department threatened to impose a travel restriction on Pakistan’s Washington diplomatic corps if the harassment did not end by Friday. “Since Joseph is understood to have diplomatic immunity, Pakistan’s refusal to let him leave the country will be seen by Washington as a wholly unjustifiable and illegal act.”

Source: New York Times May 13, 2018 00:22 UTC