The Hindu : U.S. not reluctant to take on Musharraf: Powell

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jan 08, 2004

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International

U.S. not reluctant to take on Musharraf: Powell

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON JAN. 7. The United States Secretary of State, Colin Powell, has brushed aside an argument that Washington is somehow reluctant to take on the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, on that country's dubious record on the non-proliferation front because of his cooperation in the war on terror and the recent assassination attempts against him. "I don't know of any reluctance. We have been interested in ... proliferating activities on the part of any nation that would create instability or allow rogue nations to develop nuclear weapons," he remarked.

"I have discussed this issue on a number of occasions with President Musharraf and other Pakistani leaders... President Musharraf has announced that he will be looking into it himself very thoroughly. And to the extent that we can help him with information, we will," Gen. Powell said. "But we haven't been reluctant. I can assure you of that because I've been the one who's been talking to him about it over these years," he said.

Gen. Powell would not go into the specifics of whether Pakistan was the source of some of the technology designs that may have helped Libya.

"I don't have enough information at hand to answer a question quite as specific as that. We know that there have been cases where individuals in Pakistan have worked in these areas and we have called it to the attention of the Pakistanis in the past.'' Gen. Powell was asked the extent to which Washington was prepared to work on this Pakistani trail and what the administration would do if it found out that some of the technologies were transferred to Libya or to other countries while Gen. Musharraf was in office or even after September 11, 2001 when the U.S. and Pakistan pledged their allegiance.

Vajpayee congratulated

Our Diplomatic Correspondent writes from New Delhi:

Mr. Powell telephoned the External Affairs Minister, Yashwant Sinha, to congratulate the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, on his successful visit to Islamabad. According to the External Affairs Ministry spokesman, Mr. Sinha told Mr. Powell that this was possible due to the constructive attitude displayed by both India and Pakistan. The British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, and the European Union High Representative, Javier Solana, also called Mr. Sinha to convey their congratulations to the Prime Minister.

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