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Worried Pak friends press India to cool it

US, China and Saudi Arabia respond to Pakistan president Asif Zardari’s SOS, caution India that conflict will only suit the terrorists.

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Exactly a month after the Mumbai carnage, Pakistan’s friends China, Saudi Arabia, and the US have rallied to get Islamabad out of a tight spot. All three countries have asked India to tone down the rhetoric, saying sabre-rattling will only help forces working against a rapprochement between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

There were phone calls to external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee from US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and China’s foreign minister Yang Jiechi while Saudi Arabian foreign minister Saud al-Faisal flew in for a few hours on Friday to speak to him and to prime minister Manmohan Singh.

The message from all three was for India and Pakistan to get to the table for dialogue. While Islamabad was told again to act, India was pushed to tone down its rhetoric and not play into the hands of those who want another conflict in the region. All three countries spoke of the need for Pakistan to act in an effort to reassure New Delhi that they understand and support its views on rooting out terror.

The message appeared to have hit home. Mukherjee told television reporters after the Saudi foreign minister left that India would strike back if there were another terrorist attack. So for now there is no danger of war in the region.

Till now Mukherjee had insisted that all options were open to India, through prime minister Manmohan Singh sang a different tune.

Pakistan’s president Asif Ali Zardari has been on the phone with several world leaders in the past few days asking for help. Zardari has been pointing to the pressure his fledging democratic government is facing from the army and the Inter-Services Intelligence as well as from the international community. Caught between international demands for immediate action against the terrorist outfits and the hawkish security establishment bent on protecting some of these groups, the government has been forced into a corner. Meanwhile, the threat of war is turning public opinion nationalistic.

Zardari’s distress signals were picked up by close ally China. On Christmas, foreign minister Yang called Mukherjee and spoke of the need for restraint. While noting India’s outrage at the Mumbai terror strikes, the Chinese minister said it was important to cool tempers on both sides.

Mukherjee stressed the need to get Islamabad to take action against the terrorist outfits operating from its territory. He told Yang that it was important that China, as a friend of Pakistan, use its influence to ensure that such action is taken. He said the Indian public wants those behind the Mumbai outrage to be punished. It was a polite way of telling China that India is the victim, not the culprit.

Rice made a similar call to Mukherjee on Thursday. Alarm bells have been ringing in Washington over the war-like noises emanating from both capitals. Zardari’s plea for help in a difficult situation was also on the agenda when Rice spoke to Mukherjee and said it was important to calm down as any armed conflict would endanger the entire region. The US is anxious to ensure that the two neighbours do not go to war because that could trigger a nuclear flashpoint. Former president Bill Clinton had famously spoken of South Asia as the most dangerous place in the world.

The Saudi foreign minister assured Mukherjee that Riyadh supports New Delhi’s desire for “quick and transparent action” by Pakistan against terrorist outfits. At the same time he cautioned against letting the situation go out of hand. Saudi Arabia has close ties with Pakistan and the foreign minister was sent to Delhi by king Abdullah. “There is nothing the terrorists would like to see more than a conflict,” prince Saud said. “This is what they see their success is. This is what we must prevent through collective action.”

Describing terrorism as a cancer that has afflicted the whole world, the prince said the best way to deal with it is to “cut it out” and “destroy it completely”. He suggested that the UN set up a special force to fight terrorism wherever it exists.

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