The Hindu : National : U.S. wants Pakistan to move against terrorists: Boucher

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Aug 05, 2006

National

National

U.S. wants Pakistan to move against terrorists: Boucher

Special Correspondent

`U.S. is working with everybody in the region against terrorism'

KOLKATA: Even though Pakistan has set itself a national policy to end terrorism and President Pervez Musharraf has "made it clear that he does not want them [terrorist groups in his country] there, obviously there is a lot of work to do", United States Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Richard Boucher said here on Friday in reference to India's charge against Pakistan of abetting cross-border terrorism.

"Terrorist activity in anybody's territory needs to be eliminated ... .the U.S. was working with everybody in this region against terrorism." As for Pakistan the U.S. was trying to encourage the government there "to move against any terrorist group" which has a presence in that country, he said.

On the future of the nuclear agreement between the U.S. government and India he said: "Our nuclear deal is not dependent on Iran and India was making a rational and strategic calculation of its interests for importing pipe-gas from Iran. I do not think that will change."

Mr. Boucher, who was addressing a press conference, said he was "very confident that the Bill [on the nuclear pact] would be passed by the Congress which will allow us to implement the deal the way it was signed."

Asked to comment on the charges by Left parties and those belonging to the National Democratic Alliance that the nuclear deal's "goal-posts had changed," Mr. Boucher said that he "did not think that India was following the U.S. line."

On India's charges that militant groups were using Pakistan as a launching pad to mount attacks and fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim was involved in such activity, he said that Ibrahim "is indeed on our list as someone we would like to see being brought to justice."

"We'll see through this by working together [with Pakistan]," he said.

Bangladesh too "had a lot of work left to do to get the whole network working" against terrorist groups that might be based there, he said.

The U.S. government was following the situation in Bangladesh "closely, and we see Bangladesh, a populated country with a porous borders, developing its abilities to fight terrorism."

"We are helping it to build its security capacity," he said.

On reports of the proliferation of small arms of Chinese make across the sub-continent, he said: "We are worried about such proliferation from a variety of sources. There is some concern on a global scale to stop illegal trade in small arms."

"Iran is a country in a critical region, which is opposing peace with violence and we also find that India does not want Iran to acquire nuclear weapons which will be very disturbing to this region," he said.

The U.S. Government understood the anxieties of the countries in the neighbourhood over Iran's move to develop nuclear weapons and "is concerned about Iranian behaviour," he said.

On the violence in Lebanon, he said that his country had tired to arrange a 48-hour cessation in the bombing of Lebanon "so that the people of Lebanon could escape from the suffering and be provided food and medical assistance."

"We are trying to end the fighting there but it is an abnormal situation where a terrorist group backed by Iran has started a war in a country which they do not control." The U.S. Government was trying to work out arrangements for the deployment of an international force in the disturbed region, he said.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National