Obama for peaceful resolution of Kashmir dispute

Washington, Nov 3 : Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has reportedly said that the US should try to forge a better understanding between India and Pakistan for an amicable solution of the Kashmir dispute.

"We should probably try to facilitate a better understanding between Pakistan and India and try to resolve the Kashmir crisis," the Daily Times quoted Obama as saying in a TV interview.

Earlier, last week, in an interview to the journal "Arms Control Today", Obama had said, "I will continue support of ongoing Indian Pakistani efforts to resolve Kashmir problem in order to address the political roots of the arms race between India and Pakistan."

Commenting on Obama's two statements, Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai, head of the Kashmiri-American Council, said what the senator had stated was in full conformity with previous statements made by US leaders and representatives.

On man occasions, former US presidents had also expressed similar opinion. As early as 1962, President John F Kennedy had requested the Ireland President to sponsor a resolution on Kashmir in the UN Security Council, reaffirming the resolutions of the UN Commission on India and Pakistan (UNCIP), while 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 Security Council should prevail, which is that there should be a plebiscite."

On June 15, 1962, the American representative to the United Nations, Adlai Stevenson, had stated, "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, on February 22, President George Bush had said that the US supports any solution of Kashmir that is acceptable to India, Pakistan and the Kashmiri citizens.

ANI