New Delhi, April 11: A day after US Secretary of State Colin Powell rejected India’s bid to draw similarities between Iraq and Pakistan as a legitimate target for pre-emptive military strikes, remarks from New Delhi on Friday appeared to indicate no change in India’s stand, something that has worried Washington.
“I agree with what External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha said the other day,” said Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes. “Pakistan is a fit case than Iraq for a pre-emptive strike”, Fernandes told reporters in Barmer, Rajsthan.
On Wednesday, Mr Sinha told parliament that Pakistan was a “fitter case” for a pre-emptive strike as in the case of Iraq if possession of weapons of mass destruction, export of terrorism and absence of democracy were the criteria for such an action.
Dismissing Sinha’s remarks, Mr Powell told Pakistan TV that no direct parallel could be drawn between the situation in Iraq and Pakistan.
New Delhi has, however, sought to allay Western fears that the seemingly hardline remarks were meant as a notice of India’s intentions regarding Pakistan.
However, India’s foreign secretary, Kanwal Sibal, was also quoted on Friday as telling the Washington Post that while the equation of Pakistan with Iraq was rhetorical, the United States was perceived by New Delhi as being unable to pressure Pakistan on the issue of alleged cross-border terrorism.
“This is creating the impression that the United States is unable to put sufficient pressure on Pakistan,” Mr Sibal said. “If these terrorist attacks on a large scale continue, then at some stage in terms of our public opinion the government will find it very difficult to continue to absorb this.”
Sibal said that comparisons between Pakistan and Iraq were rhetorical in nature and were not intended as “advance indication for any kind of imminent action” against Pakistan.
The Post, however, said that Western diplomats both in New Delhi and in Islamabad are worried about the potential for military conflict later this spring, when mountain snows recede and militant infiltration typically increases.
