It would be a mistake to assume that the US-Pakistan relationship would plunge into crisis only after the Raymond Davis episode, and that it will remain so only until the double murder-accused's release, South Asian affairs analyst Michael Kugelman has said.

"In reality, the Davis affair represents just the latest chapter in a lengthening narrative- one of an unraveling partnership that some fear could rupture completely," Kugelman, who is the South Asia program associate at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, wrote in Foreign Policy.

He noted that Islamabad stews over what it perceives as America's repeated betrayals of Pakistan- from Washington's failure to help prevent the country's partition during a bloody civil war in 1971 to its reduced engagement with Islamabad following the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in the late 1980s.

"Washington, meanwhile, steams about the billions of dollars of its aid that have been diverted or simply disappeared, along with the persistent evidence that elements of the Pakistani government and security forces still support key insurgent groups operating in Afghanistan, such as the Haqqani network," he added.

Pointing out the mutual suspicion of both nations, Kugelman said while the United States has been coy about the status and activities of its security personnel inside Pakistan, Islamabad has been ambiguous about the extent of its military's ties to extremists.

Officials on both sides continue to pull out the requisite stops to maintain a happy face, he said, adding that even as Pakistanis seethed with anger over the Davis episode, both sides began signalling their desire to absorb the latest blow to the relationship and move on.

"Such diplomacy, however, obscures the deep divide that drives the two reluctant allies apart," Kugelman said.

Referring to Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence contemplating severing its relationship with the Central Intelligence Agency, he said that such a split between "arguably the two most critical entities in Pakistan-U.S. relations would sound the death knell for any prospect of a meaningful relationship."

"For the immediate future, the best-case scenario is that US-Pakistan relations will simply continue to muddle along. With too many fundamental differences to consummate a healthy, sustainable relationship, yet with too much at stake for both sides to sever ties, a very shaky status quo may well persevere," Kugelman added. (ANI)