Not looking for any "mediation" role on Kashmir issue: US

Lalit K Jha

Washington, July 2 (PTI) As Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton prepares to visit New Delhi later this month, the US
says it is not looking for any "mediation" role on the Kashmir
issue and wants India and Pakistan to address the matter in a
way that eases their tensions.

Ahead of the visit, the Obama Administration also sent
another signal of its intention to develop its strategic
partnership with New Delhi announcing that the White House has
carved out a separate India Desk at its National Security
Council (NSC).

India is only the second country after Russia to be
handled separately by a Senior Director at the National
Security Council in a bid to put focus on Indo-US ties, NSC
spokesman Mike Hammer told PTI. He said this is "unusual".

On Indo-Pak issues, Hammer said, "The United States is
not looking for mediation role, but rather we want India and
Pakistan to be able to address these issues in a way that
eases tensions, because we think it is really in benefit of
both countries and also for promoting regional stability."

"On Kashmir, as I stated previously, we are not looking
for mediation role," he asserted and added that that it is for
India and Pakistan to address on their own.

Hammer said it is in US' interest in seeing that the
meetings that India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had with
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari in Russia continue in the
sense that it is important for both countries to engage in a
dialogue and to try to ease tensions. Singh is due to meet
Pakistan premier Yusuf Gilani in Egypt on the sidelines of the
Non Aligned Movement (NAM) summit possibly on July 15.

About Clinton's visit to India, State Department
spokesman Ian Kelly said she does plan to visit India sometime
in the second half of July but did not have any details right
now. PTI LKJ
rai
NNNN




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