As War Fears Grow, Pakistan Urges Talks with India

02/06/2001| IslamWeb

NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - With the shadow of war looming larger, Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf said he wanted to meet his Indian counterpart at a regional summit but India was silent on the offer on Saturday.
As the nuclear-armed neighbors mass troops on the border and trade tit-for-tat sanctions, President Bush said the United States was working hard to restore calm and prevent a fourth war between the South Asian countries.
India has already rejected the idea of talks at next week's Nepal summit but Musharraf said New Delhi needed to show openness to cool the heated exchanges between the two, triggered by a suicide attack by militants on India's parliament earlier this month.
India has blamed two Pakistan-based groups fighting its rule in Kashmi, its only Muslim-majority state and focus of two of its three wars with Pakistan since independence in 1947. The groups, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba, have denied involvement in the attack.
``I don't mind meeting with him but you can't clap with one hand,'' Musharraf told reporters after a dinner at the presidential palace on Friday. ``He (Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee must show willingness on his side and there will be willingness on our side.''
Pakistan's military leader said his country would never initiate a war. ``Pakistan stands for peace, we do not want war,'' he told guests at the dinner. ``We will never initiate a war unless it is thrust... upon us.''
India has said the parliament attack was the last straw and is fed up with after showing restraint following attacks blamed on Pakistan-based militants.
Vajpayee is also facing elections in India's biggest state and three others in February and is under intense pressure from his own party and many ordinary Indians to take tough action.