ISLAMABAD – The United States is once again in picture to ensure peace between Pakistan and India amid skirmishes along the Line of Control between the nuclear armed neighbours, The Nation learnt yesterday.
Washington had until now been showing tilt towards India but is gradually adopting a more ‘acceptable’ role to silence the guns at the LoC and convince the two to settle their issues through dialogue.
The global super power has previously played the role of a peacemaker but never been active enough to resolve the hostile neighbours’ disputes.
A senior official at the Foreign Ministry told The Nation the latest communication from the US was ‘positive’ and they were lending an ear to Pakistan’s point of view too.
“For the past few days we had been receiving statement which showed a clear tilt towards India. Our diplomats remained in contact with Washington continuously. US is shunning the alleged pro-India image,” he said.
Another official said there had been contacts with world powers but US was prominently playing a role to defuse tensions.
“For Pak-India peace, the US is again in picture and hopefully their efforts will be helpful. Like Pakistan, US believes war is not an option. We have always advocated peace and dialogue. The problem is with India,” he said.
This week, Director, Press Operations at US Department of State Elizabeth Trudeau – while expressing concern over the tense situation on the Line of Control – urged Pakistan and India to demonstrate calm and restraint.
Elizabeth Trudeau did not comment on Indian claims of surgical strike inside Pakistan territories and added: “We’re not going to speak to specific reports of incidents along the border.”
She said the militaries of both Pakistan and India were in touch and we believe that that continued communication is vital to reduce these tensions.
Elizabeth Trudeau said US was in favour of any reduction of tensions that both sides agree to in this particular instance and added that we have strong ties with both Pakistan and India, and we’ll engage on that basis.
The White House also stopped accepting signatures for a petition that sought to designate Pakistan a state sponsor of terrorism, saying it had been archived as it did not meet the “signature requirements”. “Closed petition”, said the petition page. “This petition has been archived because it did not meet the signature requirements. It can no longer be signed,” the White House explained.
The petition was created on September 21 by a person who identified himself by initials RG and the petition needed 100,000 signatures in 30 days to get a response from the White House.
Yesterday, Pakistan also welcomed a statement from UN High Commissioner for Human Rights about the rights violations in held Kashmir.
“The High Commissioner seriously concerned about the human rights situation in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir, as well as the rising tensions between India and Pakistan,” said the statement.
“We urge India and Pakistan to engage in a dialogue and to de-escalate the situation. The inflammatory remarks on both sides only fuel the tensions and could result in a further deterioration of the human rights situation,” it added.
“We reiterate our call for unfettered and unconditional access to both Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan-administered Kashmir to enable us to independently and impartially monitor the human rights situation. We stand ready to support efforts to de-escalate the situation,” it said. Pakistan welcomed the statement saying it would help solve the longstanding dispute.
In New Delhi, Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit said war was not a solution to the problems dialogues are the only way and that cross-border firing cannot be termed as ‘surgical strikes’.
Offering India to come back to the negotiations table, he said, “Both our countries need to give diplomacy centre-stage and rather than talking at each other, it is important to talk to each other and that appears the best possible way forward.”
He said: “If India is ready, Pakistan will be willing, if India is not ready then we can always wait for India to make up its mind.”
Nuclear expert Dr Adil Sultan said the efforts by the US were positive. He said Pakistan had always wanted a dialogue. “War is out of question because of the nuclear weapons. In fact India did not attack us due to our nuclear capability,” he maintained.
Sultan said the US and the world knew India was committing human rights violations in Kashmir and running away from talks.http://nation.com.pk/international/05-Oct-2016/us-in-picture-for-pak-india-peace
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