Washington: Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama is toeing the old American line in saying that the US should make efforts to forge better relations between India and Pakistan by resolving the Kashmir problem peacefully and amicably, said Kashmiri-American Council head Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai.
Commenting on Obama’s statement on Kashmir, Fai said that the senator, who is tipped to be the next US president, was in “full conformity” with previous statements made by US leaders and representatives.
“As early as 1962, US President John F Kennedy requested the President of Ireland to sponsor a resolution on Kashmir in the UN Security Council (UNSC), reaffirming the resolutions of the UN Commission on India and Pakistan (UNCIP), he said, adding US secretary of state John Foster Dulles said on February 5, 1957, “We continue to believe that unless the parties are able to agree upon some other solution, the solution which was recommended by the UNSC should prevail, which is that there should be a plebiscite.”
Dr Fai said American representative to the UN Adlai Stevenson stated on June 15, 1962, “The best approach is to take for a point of departure the area of common ground which exists between the parties. I refer of course to the resolutions which were accepted by both parties and which in essence provide for demilitarisation of the territory and a plebiscite whereby the population may freely decide the future status of Jammu and Kashmir.”
More recently, President George Bush said on February 22 this year that the US supports any solution of Kashmir that is acceptable to India, Pakistan and the Kashmiri citizens, Fai said. (ANI)
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