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

New Delhi: The United States on June 28 rejected Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's call to mediate on the Kashmir issue as part of his roadmap for normalisation of Indo-Pak ties.

"The decision makers are India and Pakistan, so there will not be a third chair at the table," outgoing US Ambassador to India Robert Blackwill told a television channel.

Musharraf's suggestion for a West Asia-type peace roadmap on Kashmir involving US during his visit to Washington has already been rejected by India.

The Pakistan President has also outlined a four-stage approach to resolve the issue, saying extremists in both India and Pakistan would reject any search for immediate solution to the problem.

He had suggested that India and Pakistan start talking to each other, accepting the centrality of the Kashmir dispute, elimination of whatever was unacceptable to Pakistan and working out a solution that was "win-win" for both countries and the people of Kashmir.

"There is no middle path, we are not going to mediate. What we will do is just facilitate the two countries and that is substance, it is not a roadmap, it is not a game plan and it is not a blueprint," the Sahara Television quoted him as saying in a release.

Sharing India's concerns, the American envoy said, "Relations (between India and Pakistan) cannot be normal in the long term until terrorism emanating from Pakistan ends, but in the short term talking is better than not talking at all."

Blackwill said the US was working on ending terrorism against India virtually every day. "We are not going to leave this problem and we will continue to work on it and eventually defeat it while working with India and other countries," he said.

On why the US wanted Indian peacekeeping forces in Iraq, he said India had a very professional Army and it was one of the most-experienced armies in peacekeeping.

"The ties between Iraq and India are historical and go back to thousands of years. Also the people of Iraq have faith in India and if the Indian government agreed to send its peacekeeping forces to Iraq it would be a great contribution in moving that country towards Democracy," he said.

Even if the Indian forces were not sent to Iraq, it would have no adverse fallout on Indo-US relations, he said.

PTI