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WASHINGTON, Jan 28
(APP): Lee Hamilton, a veteran Democratic leader and vice chairman of
the 9/11 commission, has called for United States’ support for resolution of
the longstanding Jammu and Kashmir dispute and also favored assisting Pakistan’s
effort against al-Qaeda along the Afghan border as preferred policy.
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“We’ve got to help
Pakistan in many ways. Over a period of years, we have helped them vitally on
the military side. That has to continue. But I would also help them on the
economic side, particularly on education and healthcare. And let them know that
we as a people have concern for them and want to try to improve the quality of
their lives.”
“We certainly need
to work with Pakistan and India to resolve the Kashmir problem. The United
States can’t resolve that, but we can encourage the two parties to address it,”
Hamilton told popular PBS channel Charlie Rose Show, when he was asked as to
what should the newly appointed U.S. envoy, Richard Holbrooke try to achieve.
Hamilton, who served
as lawmaker for over three decades and has been a close aide to
President Barack Obama, noted that resolving the Kashmir conflict would require tough
diplomacy. He said Washington should ensure that Pakistan stays focused on the
Afghan border and does not have to divert its troops to its eastern border with
India.
“If the Pakistanis
continue to move troops from the Afghanistan border towards
Kashmir, as they recently did with a portion of their troops (in the wake of Mumbai
attacks tensions), that”s going to make the matters more difficult for
American interests in Afghanistan, because we reduced the Pakistani effort to control
those tribal areas. So we have to help them there. This is going to take some
very tough difficult diplomacy and it will take good bit of time to resolve it.”
Hamilton, who heads
Woodrow Wilson Center said “ it’s unacceptable to me to have al-Qaeda with a
sanctuary in the tribal areas of Pakistan” but emphasized that “it would be much
preferable if the Pakistanis handle that problem, on their territory.”
However, he said,
the U.S. would not wait indefinitely and will have to act to stop al-Qaeda.
“We have been trying
to do is, encourage the Pakistanis to deal with the problem in their own country
with assistance both military and economic. what I am suggesting is that there
is a period of time that we have to try to bolster the Pakistani effort but our
time is not indefinite.”
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