US urged to address Pakistan border disputes

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WASHINGTON: The United States should stand with the democratic Pakistani leadership and make efforts to settle border disputes involving India and Afghanistan as part of a regional approach to ensure peace and security, said Bruce Riedel, who is believed to be one of Barack Obama’s foreign policy advisers, at a meeting on Wednesday.

“The US needs to stand clearly with this newly elected democratic leadership…. we should avoid shortcuts … we need to build confidence in Pakistan’s democratically elected leadership,” he said.

Reidel said it is time for President Pervez Musharraf to “take himself out of the Pakistani political equation. And it’s time for the United States to not resist the removal of Gen Musharraf”. The US, he admitted, has a remarkable bipartisan record of supporting dictatorships in Pakistan. “We have a huge catch up to do here,” he added. He also expressed support for the Biden-Lugar bill that will triple economic assistance to Pakistan over the next 10 years.

Pakistan is behind the Indian embassy bombing in Kabul, Riedel said. However, when asked for evidence for his accusation, he replied, “Obviously, I no longer am privy to seeing intelligence that our government has but I think we’ve seen both the Afghan security services and the Indian security services pointing the finger at the ISI, and if we can take the New York Times as serious that the American intelligence services have also pointed at the ISI. The evidence that is available in the unclassified arena is not conclusive by any means,” he said, adding, “But there is a history that most people in South Asia understand that makes it difficult to dismiss these accusations as out of turn.”khalid hasan