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Rice Urges Pakistan to Act With Urgency on Terror
2008-12-03
Dec. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Pakistan must act with "urgency and resolve" to help catch the perpetrators of last week's terrorist attacks in Mumbai that bore the hallmarks of an al-Qaeda-style operation, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said. "I have said that Pakistan needs to act with resolve and urgency, cooperate fully and transparently," Rice told reporters in New Delhi today. "That message has been delivered and will be delivered to Pakistan." Rice, speaking before meeting Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, is using the U.S.'s newly elevated relationship with India to press its leaders to show restraint amid indications that Pakistani militants carried out the terrorist attacks. Rice arrived today in New Delhi at the request of President George W. Bush after terrorists killed at least 195 people last week in Mumbai, India's financial capital. Singh said terrorists couldn't destroy the nation's unity. Two months ago, Rice visited the country to mark final approval of an agreement that allows U.S. manufacturers such as General Electric Co. to sell India nuclear-energy technology and drops sanctions dating from the 1970s over its nuclear weapons. Underscoring the gravity of the regional tension, President- elect Barack Obama is considering naming veteran diplomat Richard Holbrooke as a special envoy to South Asia, according to the Washington Post. Obama's chief spokeswoman for national security, Brooke Anderson, tamped down the report, saying, "We have no plans for an envoy, as there is one president at a time and we intend to respect that." Afghanistan Problem Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has said he is willing to cooperate fully with the probe into India's deadliest terror attack in 15 years, Rice said. The secretary of state is due to visit Islamabad tomorrow, according to the Nation newspaper. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino declined to comment yesterday when asked whether Rice also would make a stop in Pakistan. "It is a time for cooperation between all the people who suffered in these terrorist attacks," Rice said. "The number one priority is preventing another attack." The Bush administration wants to head off a conflict between India and Pakistan and keep the Pakistani government focused on its border with Afghanistan, a suspected al-Qaeda terrorist sanctuary. Obama seeks to intensify military efforts to dislodge al-Qaeda from that area. Obama is considering asking Holbrooke to be an envoy focused on the difficult security issues connecting India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, the Washington Post reported, citing unidentified sources familiar with the presidential transition. Heavyweight Envoy The notion of a heavyweight U.S. envoy to address the Kashmir conflict, as attractive as it may sound in Washington, would be fraught with complications. While Pakistan has long called for an outside mediator to solve the territorial dispute, India has never accepted the idea of an intermediary, insisting it is a bilateral issue with Pakistan. Holbrooke would bring deep experience to such an assignment, having hammered out the Dayton accords that ended the war in Bosnia in the 1990s and later serving as United Nations ambassador under President Bill Clinton. He was considered a top prospect for Obama's secretary of state. The aftermath of the Mumbai attacks is also being closely followed by the Pentagon. Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is in the region because of the "fairly delicate" circumstances, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said. "I would like to commend the Indians for their restraint at this point," he told Pentagon reporters yesterday. Dispel Fears India sought to dispel fears that the death toll and possible links to Pakistan might prompt war, with Mukherjee saying yesterday that "no one is talking about military action." India has blamed "elements" from Pakistan for the Mumbai attacks. U.S. Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell said yesterday the group behind last week's assault also carried out a 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament, which authorities blamed on Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba. He didn't mention the group by name. In their rhetoric and actions, the governments of India's Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Zardari have shown more restraint than in 2002, when both sides amassed forces at their border after militants thought to have originated in Pakistan attacked the Indian parliament. "This is a different relationship than it was a number of years ago," Rice told journalists traveling with her to Europe on Nov. 30, referring to India and Pakistan. "Obviously, they share a common enemy, because extremists in any form are obviously a threat to the Pakistanis as well as to the Indians." In the wake of the attacks, Rice has talked by telephone with Indian and Pakistani officials. Barely Mentioned Rice's success in India may help determine relations with the Obama administration taking office on Jan. 20. Obama and his chosen nominee for secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, barely mentioned India on the campaign trail. Obama has taken a tough line against nuclear proliferation, and some Indians worry that could translate into an arm's-length approach because India hasn't signed the nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty. When Obama was asked during the press conference announcing his national security picks whether India had the same right to strike at terrorists in Pakistan as he has asserted for the U.S., he hedged. While every sovereign nation has the right to defend itself, no nation should act precipitously or without full evidence, Obama said. "Deeply Anxious" Indian officials are "deeply anxious" about the prospective relationship, said Stephen Cohen, a specialist on India's and Pakistan's militaries at the Brookings Institution in Washington. "The Bush administration said we want to build up India into a major world power," Cohen said in an interview. Indian officials were insulted at what they saw as Obama viewing their country as primarily a vehicle for U.S. policy on Pakistan and Afghanistan, he said. India and Pakistan have been engaged in peace talks for five years in an attempt to move beyond a deadly rivalry that includes three wars since 1947, two over Kashmir. Rice cut short a European farewell tour to travel to India. She stopped yesterday in Brussels for a meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The U.S. already has sent investigators, including agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, to help Indian officials with their probe. "The evidence is already pretty clear that this attack had links to the global jihad and that those involved in it were going after the targets of the global jihad," said Bruce Riedel, a member of Obama's policy working group on national security. Al-Qaeda's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has said many times "the Islamic world is under threat from a Crusader- Zionist-Hindu alliance," Riedel told an audience yesterday at Brookings. "We saw it demonstrated in Mumbai, terrorists who were going after exactly those targets -- Americans, Israelis and, of course, Indians," he said. To contact the reporters on this story: Viola Gienger in Washington at vgienger@bloomberg.net ; Indira Lakshmanan in Washington at ilakshmanan@bloomberg.net
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