The United States has asked Nepal's King Gyanendra to restore democracy immediately, describing his decision to impose direct palace rule in the Himalayan Kingdom a complete failure.
"As a friend of Nepal, we must state that King Gyanendra's decision fourteen months ago to impose direct palace rule in Nepal has failed in every regard," the State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack said in a statement on Monday.
The demonstrations, deaths, arrests and the Maoist attacks of the last few days is actually a reflection of a situation that is "more" insecure and not less, he said.
Asserting that the King's failure to bring the political parties into a process to restore democracy has compounded the problem, he asked Gyanendra to restore democracy and begin dialogue with the parties immediately.
"The United States calls upon the King to restore democracy immediately and to begin a dialogue with Nepal's constitutional political parties. It is time the King recognises that this is the best way to deal with the Maoist insurgency and to return peace and prosperity to Nepal", the spokesman said.
He also said the US will directly take up the matter with the King.
"We are certainly going to follow up this message with the King directly. The King and our ambassador at this point in time are not co-located in the same city, so we thought that we would send this very public message, which we would have in any case repeated after the ambassador had delivered it", McCormack said.
{{/usCountry}}"We are certainly going to follow up this message with the King directly. The King and our ambassador at this point in time are not co-located in the same city, so we thought that we would send this very public message, which we would have in any case repeated after the ambassador had delivered it", McCormack said.
{{/usCountry}}