Author: Pioneer News Service/New
Delhi
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: November 13, 2001
The flow of discouraging news for
Pakistan from Washington continued with United States (US) Secretary of
State Colin Powell ruling out supply of F-16s to Islamabad as also any
role as "mediator" in the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.
Mr Powell reiterated the well established
American position that it would all it could to help India and Pakistan
restart talks, but did not see a role beyond that.
Reports from Pakistan suggested
that Islamabad had sought to read a deeper meaning into President George
W Bush's statement that the US would like the "wishes" of the people of
Kashmir to be taken into account.
That the US President was not stepping
outside of established policy was made evident by Mr Powell who said in
the course of a Meet the Press programme on NBC, that Pakistan and India
need to enter talks over Kashmir region, but the United States would not
play a key role in settling the dispute.
"To the extent that the United States
could be helpful in fostering this dialogue, fine, but we cannot become
the mediator, or the arbitrator or the intermediary between them," Mr Powell
said. Pakistan President Gen Pervez Musharraf had said Mr Bush has promised
to facilitate any talks, and maybe pursue the Indian leadership to initiate
such a dialogue. It would appear that the interpretation had a heavy overdose
of "spin."
Mr Powell also pointed out that
even though Pakistan is a close ally in the US' war on terrorism, the Bush
Administration does not propose to transfer American F-16 fighter jets
bought by Islamabad years ago. "There are no plans now to transfer those
airplanes to Pakistan," said Mr Powell.
Pakistan bought two dozen of the
fighter jets in the 1980s, but the purchase was blocked by the US Congress
because of Pakistan's program to develop nuclear weapons.
The US Secretary of State said that
Washington has a new military dialogue with Pakistan "but at the moment
it does not include the transfers of those F-16s." The US has already compensated
Pakistan for the planes, Mr Powell said.
Gen Musharraf had said on Sunday
that the US refusal sell the fighter jets has been "received negatively"
by citizens in his country. "This is one issue held very much against the
United States," he said on Fox News Sunday. Mr Powell's forthright comments
blunted Gen Musharraf's statement in a separate programme on NBC TV claiming
that Mr Bush has "promised to facilitate the process of talks between New
Delhi and Islamabad." Gen Musharraf said, "To that extent, he (Bush} has
promised he would like to facilitate a process, may be persuade the Indian
leadership to initiate a process of dialogue." Mr Powell said there were
"limits" to such facilitation. When pointedly asked whether the US would
like to get involved in a settlement on Kashmir, Mr Powell said, "The two
sides have to settle that. There needs to be a dialogue between Pakistan
and India."
Gen Musharraf's high-pitched Kashmir
campaign saw him levelling several charges against India. He said on the
television programme that except for the October 1 attack on the legislative
Assembly in Srinagar which he condemned, "the other acts which India attributed
to terrorists were really committed by the Indian intelligence service
which then blamed it on terrorists."
Gen Musharraf confirmed he has asked
Mr Bush for F-16 fighter aircraft for which Pakistan had placed a contract
but which the US refused to deliver because of nuclear sanctions.
Mr Powell further made it clear
that the point had been conveyed quite unequivocally made to Gen Musharraf.
"I think he (Musharraf) would like us to transfer them. We had a fairly
candid discussion. He and President Bush had a candid discussion but there
are no plans," he said.
