PAKISTAN: U.S. DEPUTY SECRETRAY OF STATE RICHARD ARMITAGE MEETS PAKISTANI MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS INAMUL HAQ.
Record ID:
223038
PAKISTAN: U.S. DEPUTY SECRETRAY OF STATE RICHARD ARMITAGE MEETS PAKISTANI MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS INAMUL HAQ.
- Title: PAKISTAN: U.S. DEPUTY SECRETRAY OF STATE RICHARD ARMITAGE MEETS PAKISTANI MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS INAMUL HAQ.
- Date: 24th August 2002
- Summary: (W3) ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN (AUGUST 24, 2002) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. GV: EXTERIOR OF FOREIGN OFFICE 0.03 2. GV: SECURITY OUTSIDE FOREIGN OFFICE 0.07 3. GV/MV/MCU: VARIOUS OF U.S. DEPUTY SECRETARY OF STATE, RICHARD ARMITAGE, HANDSHAKE AND MEETING WITH PAKISTAN MINISTER OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS, INAMUL HAQ (10 SHOTS) 0.58 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 8th September 2002 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN
- Country: Pakistan
- Reuters ID: LVAB38C95I4CDL49R5X31VIQEDGM
- Story Text: A top U.S. diplomat has taken a new South Asia peace
mission to Islamabad from New Delhi after Pakistan ratcheted
up tensions with nuclear rival India by accusing it of an air
attack in disputed Kashmir.
US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage called
on Pakistan's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Inamul
Haq, at the Foreign Office in Islamabad on Saturday (August
24).
He was also due to hold talks with military ruler General
Pervez Musharraf and other officials on issues ranging from
tension with India to the U.S.-led war on terror, in which the
Pakistani leader is a key ally.
Foreign ministry spokesman Aziz Ahmad Khan said Pakistan
hoped Armitage's mission, which follows on from a visit by
Secretary of State Colin Powell last month, would help push an
"intransigent" India towards talks on Kashmir.
As Armitage was holding talks in New Delhi on Friday
(August 23) Pakistan accused India of committing "a highly
escalatory act" by launching a ground and air assault on a
Pakistani mountain post in the north of the disputed Himalayan
region on Thursday night (August 22).
India immediately denied the claim, with its defence
minister, George Fernandes, calling it "a big lie".
India's last major air strikes against Pakistani forces
were during the 1999 confrontation in Kashmir's Kargil region
that almost plunged the two countries into their fourth war.
There was no independent confirmation of either claim but
each side accused the other of undermining Armitage's visit.
Speaking to reporters in the Indian capital, Armitage said
he could not comment specifically on the issue.
"There has been too much violence as a general matter and
we'll do whatever we can to reduce the violence," he said.
The latest row comes during an election campaign for a new
assembly in India's Jammu and Kashmir state that New Delhi
hopes will underline the legitimacy of its rule but fears
Pakistan and Islamic separatists will try to derail.
Pakistan has dismissed the planned election as "farcical".
Armitage said the United States wanted to see a free and
fair election, but was concerned about the possibility of
violence. He said this was an issue he would discuss in
Pakistan.
India and Pakistan have massed a million men along their
border since a December attack on the Indian parliament which
New Delhi blamed on Pakistan-based guerrillas.
Tension rose again in May this year, and the two sides
appeared on the brink of wider conflict.
Armitage's last peace mission in June helped calm tensions
and incidents of artillery and small arms fire across the
ceasefire line fell off dramatically.
India accuses Pakistan of arming and training Islamic
militants fighting its rule in Jammu and Kashmir, the mainly
Hindu nation's only Muslim-majority state.
Pakistan denies the charge.
The United States has led international efforts to push
India and Pakistan to talk peace, but analysts say it cannot
push Musharraf too hard because it needs his support for the
war against terror in neighbouring Afghanistan and the hunt
for
Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.
U.S. President George Bush praised Musharraf on Thursday
as a stalwart ally and made it clear Washington would stand by
him, just hours after the general announced constitutional
changes critics say will entrench the role of the military in
government after Pakistan's own elections on October 10.
But Armitage is expected to raise the amendments with
Musharraf after the State Department said they could make it
more difficult to build strong democratic institutions.
Armitage is also expected to discuss security for U.S. and
other foreign nationals in Pakistan following a spate of
bloody attacks on foreign targets blamed on Islamic militants
angered by Musharraf's support for the U.S. war in
Afghanistan.
His visit will coincide with the start of a trial in
Karachi on Saturday of three suspected militants accused of a
June 14 car bombing at the U.S. consulate in the southern city
that killed 12 Pakistanis.
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