ISLAMABAD, 2 April 2007 — The peace process has helped Pakistan and India to warm up relations but they still need to resolve their longstanding dispute over Kashmir, Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri said yesterday.
Kasuri said the two countries have moved beyond the tensions of 2001 when they had deployed thousands of troops along their border in an “eyeball-to-eyeball” standoff that threatened to escalate into a war.
“Now there is a sea change if you compare the situation to that,” he said at a joint news conference with his Chinese counterpart, Li Zhaoxing. “We still need to resolve our disputes but the atmosphere is far improved,” Kasuri said.
Kasuri and his Chinese counterpart during talks earlier discussed ways to boost bilateral cooperation.
Iran Urged to Free British Sailors
A senior Pakistani lawmaker has called on Iran to free 15 British sailors and marines as a “humanitarian gesture,” saying they should not be blamed for the policies of their government.
Mushahid Hussain Syed, a key ruling party figure and head of the Pakistani Parliament’s Foreign Relations Committee, said the 14 men and one woman should not be punished for the “mistakes and wrong policies of their government.”
His comments to Iran’s ambassador, Mashallah Shakiri, were released by the ruling Pakistan Muslim League in a statement. Later talking to Arab News, Mushahid said the Iranian ambassador had visited him in connection with the visit of an Iranian delegation to Pakistan. Mushahid urged Iran to seek the “moral high ground and defuse tension in the region by this humanitarian gesture.”
Captured in the Gulf on March 23, the navy personnel are being held in a secret location and occasionally shown on television allegedly confessing to and apologizing for their transgressions.
Britain insists that they were on a routine anti-smuggling patrol in Iraqi waters under a UN mandate when they were taken.
