WASHINGTON, Jan 20: US Secretary of State Colin Powell has said the stand-off between India and Pakistan had eased in the last week, and both sides were committed to a diplomatic solution.
“Based on my conversations in both Islamabad and in New Delhi, I think things have improved a little bit in the last week,” Powell told the Fox News Sunday.
“I’m encouraged that both President (Pervez) Musharraf and Prime Minister (Atal Behari) Vajpayee are committed to finding a political and diplomatic solution.”
However, the top US official said the situation was still tense, with some 800,000 Indian and Pakistani troops massed on their common border since last month’s attack on the Indian parliament.
“I don’t want to minimize the dangerous nature of the situation. Until we get things back to normal and we can de-escalate, we have to be concerned.”
“It’s going to take some time before sufficient confidence has been built up between the two sides, before the troops start moving back,” Powell said.
OSAMA REPORT: The US secretary said that a comment by President Pervez Musharraf that Osama bin Laden most likely was dead was “speculation.”
“I think it’s speculation on his part,” Powell said of Musharraf’s belief that the Saudi-born militant, who has kidney problems, probably had died after being deprived of regular dialysis treatments.
“We do not know whether he is dead or alive,” Powell said. “I have no way of making a judgment on that matter.”
“The search continues. We will use all the means at our disposal to find him and bring him to justice,” Powell said.
“He will be brought to justice if he is alive. If he is not alive, he has been brought to justice ... we may never find the remains, but we’ll keep looking.” —AFP
Colin Powell said while India was looking for more action on the measures outlined by Gen Pervez Musharraf last week, a political decision had been made to find a diplomatic solution to the current Indo-Pakistan tensions, Our Staff Correspondent adds.
He said the situation between the two countries was still tense, but “all of us were impressed, India was impressed” by Gen Musharraf’s speech. Some action had also been seen across the Line of Control that was encouraging.
Mr Powell, who was commenting on his visit to India and Pakistan during a Fox channel Sunday morning news show, said the US was encouraged by recent statements by Pakistani and Indian leaders to find a diplomatic and political solution to the crisis.
On the list of 20 people whom India wants extradited from Pakistan, Mr Powell stated that the US had been in contact with Gen Musharraf, who had not ruled out considering the cases of those were not Pakistani nationals.
The secretary ruled out the possibility of next month’s planned visit by President George Bush to China being affected by reports that a Boeing sold for the use of the Chinese president was bugged with electronic devices. He said it was not administration policy to comment on such reports. But there had been no contacts between Chinese and US officials on this matter, and plans for the Bush visit remained in place.
