Pakistan said it will reopen land routes that the United States and other NATO nations use to supply troops in Afghanistan, seven months after the roads were closed in response to an attack by U.S. aircraft that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, NBC News reported on Tuesday.

The move comes after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke on the telephone with Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar and apologized for the incident in Salala last November.

"Foreign Minister Khar and I acknowledged the mistakes that resulted in the loss of Pakistani military lives. We are sorry for the losses suffered by the Pakistani military," Clinton said in a paper statement.

On the phone call, Khar informed Clinton that the supply lines through Pakistan into Afghanistan are opening and that Pakistan would not charge a transit fee for the routes.

Afghans are 'no different from any American' 

"Pakistan will continue not to charge any transit fee in the larger interest of peace and security in Afghanistan and the region," the State Department said.

Pakistani Taliban warned they would attack trucks and oil tankers carrying supplies for the foreign forces in Afghanistan.

"We were shocked after hearing that Pakistan was going to reopen NATO supply line," Ihsanullah Ihsan, spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban told NBC's Mushtaq Yusufzai. "Pakistan is a U.S. slave and wanted the entire nation to become its slave. But we are here and have made all preparations for creating hurdles for NATO supplies. We have a modern strategy to attack NATO supplies from wherever they pass through via Pakistan." 

Reuters

Tankers used to carry fuel for NATO forces wait to cross into Afghanistan at a compound in Karachi on July 3, 2012.

The supply routes were closed by Pakistan in protest of a U.S. strike Nov. 26 on a Pakistani border post at Salala in the country's tribal areas. The strike killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, and the incident was borne of mistrust and miscommunication, according to a U.S. military investigation. But Pakistani officials maintained the strike was deliberate and they closed the overland supply routes, demanding a U.S. apology. 

U.S. officials have used careful language in the months since, saying they "regret" the loss of life, but stopping short of an actual apology.

Pakistani and U.S. officials told NBC News recently that language acceptable to both sides was the subject of many high-level discussions. Several U.S. and  International Security Assistance Force delegations have visited or reached out to Islamabad in the last seven months, including a recent flurry of activity that involved a visit last week from ISAF commander Gen. John Allen and a weekend phone call from Clinton to newly appointed Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf.

A series of domestic political crises in Pakistan contributed to the delay, including the sacking of one prime minister and appointment of another, keeping the civilian government pre-occupied with maintaining power and unable or unwilling to make significant, foreign policy decisions.

Slideshow: Pakistan: A nation in turmoil

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A U.S. official told NBC News that discussions to reopen the supply lines widened to include negotiations over back payment for coalition support funds, which the U.S. pays to Pakistan for operations in Afghanistan, drone strikes within Pakistan  and a higher rate per container for use of the supply routes.

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Many in the U.S. had pinned their hopes on the Chicago NATO Summit in May as the turning point in declining U.S.-Pakistan relations, but were disappointed when Pakistani officials failed to make any significant moves before or during the meeting. 

The reopening of the supply route marks the first significant step toward repairing relations.

Officials on both sides said recently that the alliance was at an all-time low, a feeling that is reflected in the general Pakistani population. The most recent Pew Research Poll showed anti-Americanism at a new high in Pakistan, with 74 percent of Pakistanis polled saying they considered the U.S. to be an enemy. 

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta welcomed Pakistan's decision to reopen the supply lines.

"As I have made clear, we remain committed to improving our partnership with Pakistan and to working closely together as our two nations confront common security challenges in the region," Panetta said.

NBC’s Fakhar Rehman in Islamabad, Mushtaq Yusufzai in Peshawar and Pakistan Bureau Chief Amna Nawaz contributed to this report.

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PESHAWAR, Pakistan – The ring road in Peshawar is a rough ride: navigating certain stretches means dodging enormous potholes, steering clear of steep ditches and swerving to avoid the occasional brave soul who darts from one side of the road to the other.

Yet this has been, for the last decade, one of the main arteries on which convoys of trucks carrying supplies for U.S. and NATO forces have made their way into Afghanistan. Those ground lines of communication that run from Karachi's ports to two border crossings in Pakistan have been a fundamental part of the U.S.-Pakistan relationship, as has the air line of communication.

When the U.S.-Pakistan alliance was tested once again in late November after a U.S. cross-border air strike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, Pakistan reacted by shutting down the ground supply routes – a step they've taken before in protest to U.S. actions. The air lines of communication remain open.

But access to those crucial land routes has never been denied to the U.S. for this long, and the two accounts from the U.S. and the Pakistan military of the cross-border strike that prompted their closure are so starkly different that it's hard to see how they can be reconciled.

Even though the Americans have reduced their dependence on Pakistan's roads over the last few years by using alternative routes running through Russia and Central Asia, the cost of moving goods via air and on that northern route is much greater – reportedly six times more a month – than using Pakistan's routes.

Asif Hassan / AFP - Getty Images

This photograph taken on Dec. 18, 2011 shows a general view of the NATO supply of oil tankers stand parked near oil terminals in Pakistan's port city of Karachi.

It now costs about $104 million per month to send supplies through the longer northern route, according to Pentagon figures shown to the Associated Press. That is $87 million more than when the cargo was shipped through Pakistan.

Pakistan's government is conducting its own internal review of the alliance with the U.S., and officials here say no decision will be made about the supply lines until that review is complete and recommendations have been discussed by the government. Already, however, there are forces at work within Pakistan's religious and political parties to prevent the government from reopening those lines and re-engaging on the same level with the U.S.

Issue of nationalism
At a recent rally in Rawalpindi for the Pakistan Defense Council, made up of dozens of religious and political parties, leaders mentioned the NATO supply lines with the same fervor as they did deeply nationalistic issues such as divided Kashmir and the country’s nuclear weapons. The crowd of thousands cheered as speaker after speaker threatened that there could be countrywide protests should the government decide to reopen the supply lines.

"The NATO supply lines should not be restored at any cost," said Mohammad Abdullah Gul, chairman of the National Youth Conference and a member of the Pakistan Defense Council.

"Even if the government restores (them), we are not going to accept it. The people of Pakistan, we are going to mobilize. From Khyber to Karachi, they will be mobilized and they will stop the NATO supply lines," he said.

Retired Col. Nazir Ahmed is the spokesman for Jamaat-ud-Dawa, an organization which he describes as having a "purely Islamic platform."

He said that the NATO supply lines were "rightly" blocked, and should stay blocked "forever," unless the U.S. "comes to us on the basis of equality."

He was particularly outraged by the recent cross-border attack.

Asif Hassan / AFP - Getty Images

This photograph taken on Dec. 18, 2011 shows NATO's supply of oil tankers stand parked near oil terminals in Pakistan's port city of Karachi.

"After the aggression that the Americans committed on the Pakistan Army?  They slaughtered and killed so many Muslim soldiers," said Nazir. "Every country has the right to defend its borders and its ideology."

For this segment of the population – frustrated by what they see as a decade of subservience to American policy in a deeply unpopular war here – a decision to reopen the supply lines is tantamount to a decision to put U.S. interests ahead of Pakistan's.

That sentiment felt by a growing number of Pakistanis who think the relationship with the U.S. has not benefitted their own country will make it difficult for Pakistan's leaders to publicly re-engage with the U.S., and reopen the supply lines in the same manner and under the same conditions as before.

Both U.S. and Pakistani officials say they remain committed to their alliance. How the NATO supply routes will fit into that alliance, however, is yet to be seen.