Author:
Publication: Outlook
Date: October 22, 2001
US seems to be slowly accepting
the Indian position on terrorism but Al Qaeda is still its first priority
Q: Mr President, do you feel like
you've got the full support of President Musharraf? And how hard is it
going to be for him to live up to his pledges, given his domestic situation?
Bush: I said we'll give the President
a chance to perform, and I believe he has done so. We will work and consult
closely with Pakistan and India to make sure that that part of the world
is as stable as can possibly be stable.
Let me say that, in terms of foreign
policy and in terms of the world, this horrible strategy has provided us
with an interesting opportunity.... I think we have an opportunity to refashion
the thinking between Pakistan and India. I think there's some interesting
opportunities to shake terrorism loose from sponsor states. -White House
briefing, September 19
The US secretary of state Colin
Powell's visit to Islamabad, New Delhi and Beijing arises primarily out
of the US' preoccupation with Afghanistan and the nature of Pakistan's
cooperation with the US in its efforts to target Osama bin Laden and Al
Qaeda's nodes of terror in Afghanistan.
His visit to New Delhi this week
assumes significance also because this is the first by the secretary of
state to this part of the world. Particularly in light of Bush's statement,
which clearly indicates that there's no ambiguity in America's concerns
about Pakistan's behaviour in sponsoring terrorism.
This became obvious when Pervez
Musharraf called up Atal Behari Vajpayee to offer his commiseration against
the terrorist attack on the j&k state assembly. The US set the ball
rolling by condemning it as an act of terrorism. Indian government sources
say that Musharraf called Vajpayee not on his own but because of prodding
by the US and Britain. Government officials feel that though the words
had to be wrenched out of Musharraf, it's an indication that in the future
his bombs-and-bullets Kashmir campaign might be
challenged.
Pointing to the new political reality,
these officials recall that after the Agra summit, Musharraf organised
an extraordinary press conference to declare that what was happening in
j&k was a "freedom struggle". It would be difficult to sustain that
line now and officials admit that this could have a sobering effect on
Pakistan.
The Srinagar secretariat attack
was the turning point. Vajpayee declared his patience was wearing thin,
indicating that he might be contemplating alternative policy options. Foreign
minister Jaswant Singh was in Washington then and managed unfettered access
to President Bush, vice-president Richard Cheney, defence secretary Donald
Rumsfeld, state secretary Powell as well as the National Security Advisor
Condoleeza Rice, days after Brajesh Mishra had met some of them. These
are people preoccupied with Afghanistan right now and even in normal circumstances
difficult to access. Sources say Singh used the opportunity to lay out
India's concerns. Although both Vajpayee and Singh have since said that
hot pursuit is not being considered, another terrorist attack would certainly
make it hard for both to continue to sit on their hands.
Government sources point out that
this was precisely the position Israel found itself in during the Gulf
War when Saddam Hussein directed Scud missiles at Tel Aviv and the US persuaded
Israel not to go pro-active. If India were to undertake a military recourse
to address its national security concerns, the US thinks it would hugely
complicate its current efforts in Afghanistan.
It is thus understood that as a
measure of Washington's commitment to address Indian concerns, Masood Azhar's
Jaish-e-Mohammed will shortly be put on the Office of Foreign Office Assets
Control (ofac) list, which requires less of a legal process to make the
determination of groups which commit terrorist acts than the Foreign Terrorist
Organization (fto) list of the state department.
