In Pakistan, U.S. Envoy Optimistic
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf said he will not initiate a war with India and made it clear he was searching for peace, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said on Thursday.
``President Musharraf has made it very clear that he is searching for peace and he won't be the one to initiate a war,'' Armitage told reporters in the Pakistan capital. ``I will be hopefuly getting the same type of assurances tomorrow in Delhi.''
Armitage arrived on Thursday in Islamabad on a mission to try to defuse tensions between India and Pakistan that have sparked fears of a fourth war between the nuclear armed rivals. He will be in the Indian capital on Friday. Armitage said Musharraf's comments were ``a very good basis on which to proceed.''
Armitage also said that the U.S. military effort against al Qaeda in western Pakistan has not been affected by the crisis in Kashmir.
During a one hour and 45 minute meeting, Musharraf "made it clear to me he wants to do everything he can to avoid war, and I think that's a very good basis on which to proceed," Armitage said.
Washington has expressed concern about how the India-Pakistan tension might affect efforts to nab al Qaeda and Taliban fighters along Pakistan's western border with Afghanistan. Pakistan already has pulled out some troops who have been helping Americans in the effort for possible redeployment to its eastern frontier with India.
"Some elements have moved, but the main activity on the western border of Pakistan seems unaffected in my view," Armitage said.
Armitage, who has a reputation for blunt talk, arrived Thursday morning and quickly went into a whirlwind series of meetings with Foreign Secretary Inam Ul Haque, Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar and Musharraf.
He arrived a day after India made a conciliatory gesture to Pakistan, calling for joint monitoring of the Kashmir frontier — a proposal that Pakistan played down as old and unlikely to work.
Armitage said he would discuss that proposal with Indian officials when he flies to new Delhi on Friday.
"It doesn't do any good to discuss these things in public," he said.
In phone calls Wednesday to Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, President Bush appealed to leaders of both nations Wednesday to "choose the path of diplomacy."
An Indian army spokesman reported sporadic gunfire overnight across the so-called Line of Control that divides Kashmir between India and Paksitan, but said artillery fell silent hours before Armitage arrived. No casualties were reported.
However, Indian police reported seven people — three soldiers, three insurgents and one civilian — were shot dead Thursday in separate incidents on the Indian side of the disputed Himalayan region.
Six other suspected Islamic insurgents were killed in an attack Wednesday on their hide-out in India's portion of the disputed territory, Indian authorities also said.
The international community has been scrambling to avert a potential fourth war between India and Pakistan as fears of a nuclear confrontation have escalated. Some 1 million Indian and Pakistani soldiers have been posted along the frontier since December.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who is expected to visit the region next week, said Wednesday that Vajpayee and Musharraf recognize war is the worst option, so they "may very well be looking for ways to tamp things down rather than see things escalate."