NEW YORK, June 3: As the US envoys get ready to go to India and Pakistan in a bid to press both the countries from going to war, several American lawmakers said on Sunday that the “war on terrorism” would suffer a setback due to the threat of nuclear war in the region.
Senator Bob Graham Chairman of Senate Intelligence Committee condemned the United States for not intervening earlier, saying that it “sat on the sidelines for over 50 years and let the Kashmir situation get to this point that it is now exploding on us at a time of real crisis”.
Graham said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the United States has to be “prepared to reassess our military operation in Afghanistan. Can we keep thousands of American troops in the theatre when there is a threat of nuclear war?”
Sen Bob Graham and other leaders of Congress’ intelligence committees said there was a real possibility that the current standoff over the Kashmir dispute could lead to the use of nuclear weapons.
“I think it’s the most dangerous place in the world,” said Senator. Richard Shelby of Alabama, top Republican on Senate committee. “I hope it will not get to desperation. ... If it does, I’m afraid we’ll have a nuclear exchange. The worst of all scenarios is an explosive, incendiary place like we’ve never seen.”
Congressman Porter Goss of Florida, Chairman of the House intelligence committee, said he does not think “there is sufficient understanding of the people who have nuclear capability of the consequences of using that nuclear capability. That’s the danger.”
Appearing on various news shows on Sunday, Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States, Maleeha Lodhi, said Pakistan would keep its word to stop the launching from Pakistani soil of attacks into Indian-held Kashmir.
“We came through, we delivered,” when the “war on terrorism” began, she said on Fox. “The United States, as well as the rest of the international coalition, could not have achieved the significant gains that were achieved in Afghanistan without our help.”
Lodhi, while asking for patience on India’s part and terming talk of using nuclear weapons “insanity”, said Pakistan would defend itself against even a limited Indian attack. She added that promises not to use nuclear weapons against an attacker were mere oratory and propaganda, with “no meaning in an operational sense”.
INDIAN AMBASSADOR: India’s Ambassador to the United States, Lalit Mansingh, said the two sides are running out of diplomatic options. “This is why it’s important for Pakistan to listen to what President Bush and other world leaders are saying: ‘stop the export of terrorism into India’,” the diplomat said on “Fox News on Sunday”.
The New York Times said on Monday that both Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage are to travel to the region this week, but so far there is no sign that they have any dramatic new proposals.
The Times said that US Secretary of State Colin L. Powell telephoned General Musharraf on Saturday, to repeat once more President Bush’s call for the Pakistani leader to “stop infiltration by extremists” into Indian-held territory, and to emphasize the need for a diplomatic resolution, a senior administration official said.
