U.S. Ups Pressure On Pakistan
The Bush administration is urging Pakistan to take firmer action against militants thought to be involved in last month's terrorist attacks in Mumbai to avoid a further worsening of relations with India, according to two senior diplomats from NATO member countries.
On Monday, speculation grew over increasingly active U.S. lobbying to block a slide in Indo-Pak relations when Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, flew in to Pakistan.
Pakistani officials said Mullen was expected to meet with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and General Ashfaq Kiyani, Pakistan's army chief of staff, in an apparent effort to urge the country's leader to take stronger action against militant groups suspected to be linked to the Mumbai attacks.
"This may be the last act on South Asia by President Bush's team before he steps down next month," said a NATO ambassador based in Islamabad who spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity. "The U.S. is very keen for Pakistan to take much stronger action against Islamic militants, simply so that India does not find reason to eventually launch even limited strikes on suspected militant targets in Pakistan," said the ambassador.
The NATO ambassador said the U.S. was actively trying to negotiate an end to prevailing frictions between India and Pakistan, amid mounting fears over the two countries "heading in to an endless state of confrontation."
A second diplomat from a NATO country, also based in Islamabad who spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity said the U.S. is worried that if Pakistan became embroiled in a wider conflict with India that it would push Pakistan away from maintaining its troop deployments along the border with Afghanistan.
"The U.S. would find it unacceptable for Pakistan to draw some or all of its 170,000 troops from the Afghan border. Such a move would give a free hand to al Qaeda and Taliban, and destroy some of the most important successes in the war on terror," the NATO diplomat said.
U.S. pressure on Pakistan comes as concerns remain high over relations between India and Pakistan sliding rapidly since the Mumbai attacks were followed by claims from Indian officials that the attackers were linked to the lashkar-e-tayyaba (LeT) militant group. Pakistan says LeT remains inactive since it was banned in 2002. But last week, Pakistan ordered the closure of facilities belonging to Jamaat-ud-dawa (JUD), an Islamic charity that Western diplomats said was the front for LeT.
Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, founder of the LeT and Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, a senior LeT commander, were also placed under house arrest, earlier this month. While Western diplomats discount the possibility of an all out war between the two nuclear armed countries, there is growing concern over fast building rhetoric between India and Pakistan. "Wars are not necessarily due to a controlled process. Sometimes they can be accidental too," said the NATO diplomat.
On Monday, the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) was ordered to increase its flights above major Pakistani cities as a measure that one senior Pakistani government official described as "strictly precautionary in nature given the environment we live in."
At the same time, Pakistan's opposition leaders hardened their stand against India in response to statements attributed to Indian officials, suggesting that all options were on the table including the use of force targeting suspected militant sites in Pakistan. Chaudhary Nisar Ali Khan, a prominent leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the second largest party in the country after the ruling Pakistan People's Party (PPP) said; "our government must take a position against hostile indications from India".
Analysts said, while the atmosphere between the two countries was charged, the possibility of an all out conflict still appeared to be remote. "In the history of the world, you have never had two nuclear-armed countries go to war against each other. Short of something completely unforeseen, it is difficult to imagine how the major powers of the world will let India and Pakistan take on each other, especially given that they are both nuclear powers," said Hasan Askari Rizvi, a prominent Pakistani political commentator in an interview with CBS News.