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US, UK discuss need to reduce India-Pakistan tensions
The United States and the United Kingdom have both strongly condemned the Pulwama attack and have extended their support to India to fight terrorism.
US secretary of state Mike Pompeo and UK’s National Security Advisor Mark Sedwill on Friday discussed the need to reduce tensions between India and Pakistan, following the Pulwama terrorist attack in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed last month, as one of “key global priorities”.
The two officials discussed “key global priorities, including support for reducing tension between India and Pakistan”, US state department spokesperson Robert Palladino said in a readout of their meeting. They also discussed Syria and Iran, and the special relationship between their countries.
No details were offered of the India-Pakistan discussions and response was awaited from the state department to a request for more information, including, if the two officials also talked about their proposal, with France in the lead, to the UN Security Council to designate Masood Azhar, the head of Jaish-e-Mohammad that has claimed responsibility for the Pulwama attack, as a terrorist.
The three P-5 countries launched last week a fourth attempt to sanction Azhar. China, which blocked the last three attempts, holds the key and it has been non-committal so far. A decision is likely next week.
The United States and the United Kingdom have both strongly condemned the Pulwama attack and have extended their support to India to fight terrorism. The United States backed India’s right to self-defense and the airstrike on a Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorist camp in Balakot, Pakistan, calling it “counter-terrorism actions”, a description that India has welcomed and embraced for the strikes.
The US and UK, joined by France, also pressed the UN Security Council to pass a “pathbreaking” statement condemning the Pulwama attack, despite stiff resistance from China, on behalf of Pakistan.
And the three P-5 countries and Afghanistan joined India to oppose an appeal by Hafiz Saeed, founder and head of Lashkar-e-Toiba that carried out the 2008 Mumbai massacre, to be removed from the UNSC list of designated terrorists. An ombudsman for the world body rejected Saeed’s petition on Wednesday.
