Posted on 05/28/2002 8:06:37 AM PDT by RCW2001
Pakistan defied international calls for restraint and test fired a third missile, hours after British Foreign Minister Jack Straw arrived here in a bid to avert war with India.
Straw's mission is part of intense international efforts to calm tensions between the two nuclear-armed rivals, who have a million troops massed on their border.
Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Anatoly Safonov is also in Islamabad, pressing a proposal to arrange face-to-face talks between the Pakistani and Indian leaders, which has now been scuttled by New Delhi.
And Japan dispatched an envoy, Vice Foreign Minister Seiken Sugiura, to Pakistan and India on Tuesday to bolster the mediation efforts.
Straw said after "constructive and and forthright" talks with President Pervez Musharraf that the Pakistani leader was aware he was expected to do more to clamp down on cross-border terrorism, which has fuelled the row with India.
"I think that President Musharraf is under no doubt about the expectation of the international community for clear action to be taken in addition to that which has already been taken to clamp effectively down on cross-border terrorism," he said at a press conference.
Straw arrived in Pakistan a day after Musharraf made an address to the nation where he declared that no infiltration of militants was taking place into Indian-controlled Kashmir -- a comment quickly rejected by India as false.
"The test of assurances down the ages is how they work out on the ground, and it's of course against the practice that all these matters are inevitably judged," Straw said when asked about the claim.
The British foreign secretary said his visit was aimed at sharing "the international community's concerns" with the Pakistani and Indian leaderships.
"Both sides have nuclear weapons and the capacity to use those nuclear weapons. So the risks are obvious and considerable."
He said there were "clear limits" to what the international community could do "since decisions about war and peace rest with the parties to the dispute."
"But because cannot do everything, and we cannot, does not mean that we should not try to do our best, as I believe we are, to seek to avert war and to secure a peaceful resolution of this long-running dispute."
Pakistan said the firing of the indigenously developed Abdali, tested for the first time Tuesday and capable of carrying warheads accurately up to a range of 180 kilometres (110 miles), would be the last in the current series.
On Saturday, Pakistan test-fired a nuclear-capable medium-range Hatf-V (Ghauri), capable of striking deep inside Indian territory, and the weapon fired Sunday was a newly-developed short-range Hatf-III (Ghaznavi) capable of carrying warheads up to 290 kilometres (180 miles) with great accuracy.
All three missiles are named after Muslim conquerers of Hindus in the sub-continent over the past nine centuries.
Tensions between the two nuclear powers have reached flashpoint over Indian charges that Pakistan supports Muslim separatist terror attacks in Indian-controlled Kashmir.
In his address to the nation on Monday evening, Musharraf vowed that Pakistan would not allow terrorism to be launched from its soil, and said no infiltration was taking place into Indian Kashmir.
But he said tension was "at its height" and the danger of war was not yet over. And he repeated that Pakistan "will always support the Kashmiri struggle for liberation".
Reacting to the address, India Tuesday denounced Musharraf's comments as "disappointing and dangerous" and accused Pakistan of nuclear threats.
Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh said Musharraf had spoken "casually" about nuclear weapons, and he reiterated India's "no first use" policy of the devices.
Singh said he did not believe intense diplomatic pressure on Islamabad was having much effect and warned the Indian government would "continue to take such measures as are necessary."
Sure. Let's also go ahead and make Straw the Viceroy of this 25% of of the world population.
John Cleese is my choice. ;^)
No. No. Rowan Atkinson. Let Blackadder sort 'em out.
As ambassador to France, perhaps.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.