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U.S. Cites Progress, Pakistan Sees Threat
Friday, June 14, 2002
(14:13)
By Safiullah Gul
Pravda.ru

"What other countries can do is to try to be helpful in reducing the tensions," Rumsfeld said, adding it was stressful for the forces to remain on high alert for a long period.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, noting some progress towards easing Pakistan-India tensions, Thursday said the United States had no evidence of al-Qaeda activists operating from Azad Kashmir.

As the American official claimed a degree of decline in the tension, Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar saw a continuing threat to Pakistan from the large number of Indian troops deployed across the Line of Control and the working boundary.

Addressing a news conference at the Foreign Office in the federal capital, Islamabad, jointly with Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar, Rumsfeld said there were intelligence reports about al-Qaeda men operating in Kashmir. "But it (their presence) is not verifiable," he hastened to add, admitting the US had no evidence in this regard.

"The anti-terror cooperation between Pakistan and the United States was so close that it would not have been difficult to track down al-Qaeda men if there had been any clue to their presence here," the visiting dignitary observed after holding talks with the host leadership. He was all praise for Islamabad's role in the ongoing war on terrorism. Of Pakistan-India tensions, Rumsfeld said it was a collective goal of President George Bush, Secretary Colin Powell and British Prime Minister Tony Blair to ensure de-escalation between the nuclear-armed neighbors. He underscored the imperative of contacts between the two sides to lower the existing level of animosity.

Earlier, he held detailed talks with President Musharraf and Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Aziz Khan. During the meetings, India's recent steps towards de-escalation, Pakistan's position on the crisis and the situation in Afghanistan came up for discussion.
(More: Pravda.ru News Source)
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