NEW DELHI: Pakistan’s former ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani has claimed that President Obama offered to Pakistan to nudge Indians towards negotiations on kashmir.
Reports from Washington said in his book ‘Magnificent Delusions’, released today, Mr Haqqani has written that Mr Obama had sent a letter to the then Pakistan President Asif Zardari in 2009 proposing to help Pakistan in its dealing with India over Kashmir provided the country ended support to militant groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Taliban.
“Since the 1950s Pakistan had wanted an American role in South Asia. Now it was being offered one. In the end Pakistan would have to negotiate the Kashmir issue directly with India. But at least now the American President was saying that he would nudge the Indians toward those negotiations,” Mr Haqqani says in the book.
The letter was personally delivered by the US President’s then National Security Advisor Gen (retired) James Jones. Mr Obama offerred Pakistan to become his country’s “long-term” strategic partner.
The book quotes Mr Obama as saying in the letter, “I am committed to working with your government to ensure the security of the Pakistani state and to address threats to your security in a constructive way.”
The Obama Administration, however, recently rejected Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s plea to intervene in the Kashmir issue.
