Solving Kashmir issue may not solve problem in Afghanistan: Cohen

Lahore, Dec.12 (ANI): A well-known expert on South Asia has said that it would be simplistic to belief that solving the Kashmir issue between India and Pakistan, would end the problems in Afghanistan.

"That's going too fast and too much,'' the Daily Times quoted Stephen Cohen, who has authored several books on the region including The Idea of Pakistan, as saying.

A former Pakistan analyst at the US State Department, Marvin Weinbaum, told BBC the new regional approach will be to bring in China, Russia, Iran and Saudi Arabia - but above all Pakistan and India.

Bruce Riedel, who has also counselled three US presidents on South Asia and the Middle East, advocates the India-Pakistan normalisation route to solving Afghanistan.

The basic premise of this thinking is that normal relations with India, particularly resolving the Kashmir dispute, will let Pakistan focus more on the fight against Al Qaeda and Taliban along its western border.

Lisa Curtis, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told BBC the notion could raise unrealistic expectations in Pakistan and encourage Islamabad to increase support for Kashmiri militants to push an agenda it believed was within reach.

She says instead of narrowly focusing on Kashmir, the incoming Obama administration should assume a much wider view of the region's challenges.

She suggests appointing a US envoy for South Asia as a whole. (ANI)