World

Saying All The Right Things

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

January 18, 2002 / 7:22 AM EST / CBS

Secretary of State Colin Powell ended a mission to India and Pakistan on Friday saying he was "very encouraged" that the two nuclear-armed countries were ready to avert war. Powell then journeyed to Nepal for a brief stopover.

The leaders of both India and Pakistan were talking peace instead of war for the first time since mid-December, when an attack on the Indian parliament in New Delhi ratcheted up tensions between the rival countries.

Pakistan's President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said Friday he is confident war can be avoided.

"I am confident that ... there won't be a war. We don't want war," Musharraf told a gathering of Pakistan's top clerics. "But if war is imposed on us, we are ready to ... fight with all our might."

Musharraf's remarks came as Powell met with Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Indian External Affairs Minisiter Jaswant Singh, at a joint news conference with Powell, said New Delhi was committed to finding a diplomatic solution provided Islamabad delivered on a pledge to crack down on Islamic militants.

"Once confidence is restored between the two countries, everything else will fall in place and will then become so much easier to act upon," Singh said. "And if there is action with regard to the list of 20 wanted terrorists and criminals, then I'm very hopeful that there would be a distinct move towards moving to a situation which would be a situation similar to what existed before the 13th of December."

Antipathy between the two nations rose after a Dec. 13 attack on Indian Parliament that left 14 people dead and which New Delhi blames on two Pakistan-based Islamic militant groups and Pakistan's spy agency. Pakistan denies involvement.

But Musharraf appears to be serious in his drive to crack down on Islamic extremists; he told clerics Friday his people should not meddle in foreign policy and should trust him to sort out Kashmir. His tone revealed frustration with Pakistan-based Islamic groups that have spawned extremist militant offspring to fight Indian rule in parts of Kashmir.

Pakistan had to steer a middle course between Westernization and radical Islam, he said.

Powell, who met with Musharraf in Islamabad on Wednesday, said in New Delhi that he believed India and Pakistan were pulling back from the brink of war.

"I think we are on a path that could lead to the restoration of dialogue," Powell said. "But it will take further action before we can really start walking down that path more aggressively."

Musharraf's statements came a week after he banned three extremist sectarian groups and two groups that have been fighting for secession in the Indian-ruled portion of Kashmir. More than 2,000 Islamic activists have been arrested and hundreds of their offices sealed in a crackdown since Musharraf's ban was announced last week.