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Is US using the Kashmir issue to try and get a permanent foothold in South Asia? Post your views

Washington: Pakistan welcomes "mediation, pressure, facilitation, encouragement" or any such other role of the US and the rest of the international community in resolving the Kashmir issue, Khurshid M Kasuri, the Pakistani Foreign Minister, said on May 15.

Kasuri told the Heritage Foundation, a non-governmental think-tank, that the international community, particularly the US, is already playing a role - whatever name is given to that role - in pushing India and Pakistan towards resolution of Kashmir issue and Islamabad welcomes that.

Asked whether the US played any role in Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's latest offer of talks with Islamabad, Kasuri said the US has played a very positive role.

The US efforts were quite evident last year - when India and Pakistan were on the verge of war, the US was "running hither and thither" to prevent a war, and for that, "we should be grateful", he elaborated.

Kasuri, who has already met Vice President Dick Cheney, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice during his current US visit, said there is now an element of optimism in South Asia as a result of the two countries' renewed efforts towards starting dialogue.

Pakistan, he said, has decided it wants friendship with India but it will not tolerate hegemony. He also said Pakistan needs US arms and spares because its fears of India are not imaginary. He claimed there are more fundamentalists in the Indian Parliament than in Pakistan.

PTI