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This story is from September 29, 2016

Susan Rice calls Ajit Doval to put US support behind India, warns Pak on terror

US National Security Adviser Susan Rice spoke to her Indian counterpart Ajit Doval to offer condolences to families of the Uri attack victims and express support for India on the issue of terrorism, National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said in a read-out on the call.
US security advisor calls Ajit Doval, condemns Uri terror attack
AFP FIle Photo
WASHINGTON: The Obama administration on Wednesday affirmed its support to India on the issue of cross-border terrorism , while putting Pakistan on notice for its failure to act against UN-designated terrorists and entities .
US National Security Adviser Susan Rice spoke to her Indian counterpart Ajit Doval to offer condolences to families of the Uri attack victims and express support for India on the issue of terrorism, National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said in a read-out on the call.

Although the statement did not explicitly pin the Uri attack on Pakistan , there was a broad censure of Islamabad for continuing to harbour proscribed terrorists and terrorist outfits, with a pledge that Washington would "deepen collaboration on counterterrorism matters including on UN terrorist designations."
"Highlighting the danger that cross-border terrorism poses to the region, Ambassador Rice reiterated our expectation that Pakistan take effective action to combat and delegitimize United Nations-designated terrorist individuals and entities, including Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Muhammad, and their affiliates," the statement said, in an unequivocal acceptance of the Indian position that state-backed terrorist proxies have a free run in Pakistan. India has blamed Jaish operatives for the Uri attack, and has more recently identified the attackers and the camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir they came from.
The US statement came amid recrimination and criticism from some Indian commentators including retired diplomats that the Obama administration was hedging on backing India and putting pressure on Pakistan after the Uri attack. Although Secretary of State John Kerry gave Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif an earful at the UN General Assembly last week, some analysts and retired Indian officials selectively highlighted pabulum in the statement to suggest that New Delhi had taken false comfort about US support and everything was hunky-dory in Islamabad's ties with Washington.

The Pakistani press had gone to town reproducing one such column to claim India had been snubbed by US, and had suffered other setbacks at the UN in its efforts to isolate Pakistan. It had cited support for its position from the UN Secretary General, China, Turkey, Gulf countries etc, ignoring the fact that President Obama avoided meeting Nawaz Sharif despite the latter's single-point agenda of raising the Kashmir issue during his UN visit.
Turns out the claims were baloney, with even China circumspectly sticking to its position of asking both Pakistan and India to resolve issues bilaterally. In fact, Beijing distanced itself from Pakistani media reports that claimed that Premier Li Keqiang had conveyed China's backing to Pakistan on the Kashmir issue during his meeting with Sharif.
"The issue of Kashmir is an issue leftover from history. Our stance on that is consistent. We hope that parties concerned will pursue a peaceful settlement through dialogue," Chinese spokesman Lu Kang said when asked about the Pakistani media reports.
The US statement on the Rice-Doval call leaves no doubt where Washington stands on the latest developments in the region, with none of the comforting crumbs that lower level US officials throw out for Pakistanis to feast on, such as asking both sides to engage, recognizing Pakistan's sacrifices etc.
In fact, the phone conversation, coming after New Delhi's call to torpedo the SAARC meet, virtually endorses India's decision to scupper the summit.
"In the context of the robust US-India partnership, Ambassador Rice discussed our shared commitment with India," the readout said, with no reference to the SAARC boycott by India and three other countries, including Bangladesh and Afghanistan, both affected by Pakistan's sponsorship of terrorism.
The US has an observer status in Saarc, as do Australia, China, European Union, Iran, Japan, South Korea, Mauritius and Myanmar.
In fact, the manner in which Islamabad used the UN pulpit to highlight its Kashmir fetish is now seen as a promotion of terrorism in some quarters. "Disappointed to see the Pakistan PM use the @UN to praise a militant group that uses violence to promote its cause," US Congressman Ted Poe, who has moved a bill to have Pakistan declared a state sponsor of terrorism, tweeted on Wednesday.
In a separate letter to Prime Minister Modi, two other influential senators, Mark Warner and John Cornyn, said they were "greatly concerned about initial indication that the perpetrators of this (Uri) attack were Pakistani and that the attck emanated from Pakistan" and "Pakistan's possible involvement in this attack underscores out broader concerns about its use of terrorism as a pillar of its foreign policy towards Afghanistan and India."
Noting that groups such as LeT, TTP, and JeM not only launched attacks on India but also on US personnel and interests in Afghanistan, they warned that this is "unacceptable."
Despite such humiliating public deprecation, Pakistan's official narrative fed to a pliant media is how gloriously the country is doing in raising the profile of the Kashmir struggle and how success is imminent. On Tuesday, the country's Defence Minister Khwaja Asif, who once taunted the Pakistan Army as "losers" in the National Assembly, once again threatened use of the country's nuclear weapons.
Such periodic assertions has led Washington to conclude that Pakistan is an "unstable" nuclear power, compared to the responsibility India exercises with regards to nuclear policy.
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