With the US not supporting their cause in Kashmir and sanctions imposed on them through the Pressler Amendment that had banned assistance to Pakistan, Islamabad felt "screwed on Kashmir," the then US President Bill Clinton is reported to have said.
Clinton said this to Taylor Branch, the
Pulitzer prize winner author, who recently published the book
The Clinton Tapes. The book is based on the secret conversation Branch had with Clinton during his presidential years inside the White House. The book reflects Clinton being sympathetic to Pakistan and wanting to help it.
"Separately, he said they feel screwed on Kashmir, because the United States has long deferred to annexation by India against the majority wish of the Kashmiris," Branch writes in his latest book that hit the stores last week.
"Also, it was fundamentally unfair that the US Pressler Amendment punished Pakistan and not India for the development of nuclear weapons," Clinton said. The amendment banned military and economic assistance to Pakistan.
Pakistan still offered a nuclear-free South Asia, complete with international inspections, but India insisted that she needed nuclear weapons to deter China, the book says.
Branch said: "Benazir Bhutto's main purpose in Washington was to seek relief for Pakistan's F-16 aircraft confiscated under the Pressler Amendment after the full USD 1 billion purchase price had been paid to Lockheed Martin."