PM asks Saudi to persuade Pakistan to desist from terror path

V Mohan Narayan

On Board PM's Special Aircraft, Mar 1 (PTI) Indian
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday said he had asked
Saudi Arabia to use its "good offices" to persuade Pakistan to
desist from the path of terror.

Singh was asked by reporters on his way back home from
Riyadh whether India would like to see Saudi Arabia as a
credible interlocutor in dealing with some Indo-Pak issues, an
apparent reference to remarks made by Minister of State for
External Affairs Shashi Tharoor that created a flutter.
"I know Saudi Arabia has close relations with
Pakistan," Singh said, noting that he had discussed Indo-Pak
relations with King Abdullah on a one-to-one basis and
explained to him the role that terrorism aided, abetted and
inspired by Pakistan is playing in India.
"I did not ask him to do anything other than to use
his good offices to persuade Pakistan to desist from this
path," he said. (

The Prime Minister said the relations with countries
living in the neighbourhood is a very important issue, which
India was working very hard on.
"There are times when there are difficulties but we
have to bite the bullet," he said.
Asked what he meant by walking the extra mile on
relations with Pakistan, Singh hoped that the world community
gets the right message that India is a victim of terrorism and
there was a situation where its neighbour has promised
unambiguously not to allow its territory to be used for
perpetrating terrorist acts directed against India.
"Yet on the ground progress has been rather nil (on
Pakistan's part)," he said.
The Prime Minister noted that it was an increasingly
inter-dependent world and whomsoever he had met, he had
conveyed to the leaders that all problems between India and
Pakistan can be resolved through meaningful bilateral dialogue
if only Islamabad would take a more reasonable attitude to
dealing with those terrorist elements who target India.
Singh said the Saudi leadership has a better
understanding of the predicament India faces both in Pakistan
and in Afghanistan.
"There is a great deal of sympathy for India's point
of view. What we are asking is very reasonable," he said. PTI
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