US has said that it is yet to take a decision on India;s access to Lashkar operative David Coleman Headley to India, said Robert Blake, the Obama Administration's point man for South Asia, especially India-Pakistan relations.
But he maintained that the US was fully committed to making information on the Pakistani-American available to Indian authorities, and said there should be no confusion over US Ambassador to India Tim Roemer's statements in this regard.
Roemer had earlier suggested in New Delhi that Headley would be made available to Indian authorities for cross-examination with some strings attached.
Blake told rediff.com during a press interaction at the Foreign Press Center in Washington, DC: "The United States is committed to full information sharing with the Government of India on this very, very important case."
"And, we understand that there's a lot of information that Mr Headley has that is of great interest to India, particularly because he was scouting out some possible sites," he said, and added, "And, so, obviously, the Government of India has great interest in anything to do with that. And we have a great interest in sharing as much information as we can on that."
When asked if the US state department would make Headley available to India considering Indian allegations that his guilty plea may have been a deal to cover-up his intelligence ties with the US, Blake said: "We commit, we are very much committed to full information sharing with the government on that."
But, he said, "No decision has yet been made on the question of whether they (Indian authorities) will have direct access to David Headley.
"As you know, the US Department of Justice is working with the Government of India to discuss the modalities for such cooperation. But again, no decision has been made on that," the former deputy chief of mission at the US embassy in New Delhi said.
On the issue of India declaring that there would be no composite dialogue with Pakistan unless Islamabad eliminated the terrorist infrastructure on its territory, Blake said Washington had urged Pakistan on act on India's concern.
But he also repeatedly made a stout defense of Islamabad's fight against terrorism, quoting over and over again the Pakistani Army's successes in the Swat Valley and South Waziristan.
"The United States also believes it's important for Pakistan to not allow any terrorist groups to use Pakistan as a base from which to attack India or any other country. And, so I made that point not only publicly but privately with our friends in Pakistan," he said.
When pointed out that even during the much ballyhooed US-Pakistan strategic dialogue last month and repeated US orders to Pakistan to close terror camps, the banned Jamaat ul-Dawa and the Lashkar-e-Tayiba had openly held a public meeting in Pakistan, which was widely reported, Blake simply said, "We've already expressed our concerns (to Pakistan)."
Blake argued that Pakistan has already made enormous progress "first in Swat, then in South Waziristan, then with the most recent arrest of some of these senior Taliban leaders".
"So, you know, one could argue there's a lot of important progress that has been made, but we think there also needs to be progress against these Punjab-based groups, many of which, by the way, are targeting Pakistan, as well groups like the Jaish-e-Mohammed that are responsible for attacks in Lahore. They are responsible for the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team. So again, there's a compelling reason for the government to take action against those groups," he said.
Asked how the US views Pakistan's progress or lack of it in prosecuting the conspirators of the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai, Blake said, "There has been progress over time."
"The Government of Pakistan does remain committed to prosecuting these individuals. And the only point I made (while he was in Islamabad) was just the importance of continuing that process, because that's an importance confidence building measure for the Indians -- and for the United States, I might add, since there were six Americans killed in those attacks," he said.
When asked if during his recent trip to India he sensed a growing anti-American mood in India in the wake of reports that Headley was a double agent, Blake strongly disagreed.
"I would disagree that there's a strong, growing anti-American feeling. I mean, I certainly didn't detect that at all, and I had a wide range of meetings in Delhi, including with civil society and think tanks and so forth. So that didn't come up, nor did the counterterrorism," said Blake.
Asked if the Kashmir issue was raised during his recent visits to New Delhi and Islamabad, he said, "It's like water. Kashmir always comes up in everything. So it's very prominent."
"But again that's something that the two countries are going to have to work out. As I said earlier, both countries have made quite a lot of progress in the period between 2004 and 2007. So sometimes the premise of people's question is that it's impossible for India and Pakistan to make progress. And that's simply not true," he said.
"In fact, there's the blueprint for some sort of agreement on Kashmir, if they choose to endorse that. But again, I go back to what I said earlier, that it's really up to India and Pakistan to decide how to move forward on that," he added.
Asked for his take on reports that India, after three years of vacillating, has decided to start talking to Iran again on the Iran-Pakistan-India oil pipeline that the US has discouraged, Blake said, "We would prefer that countries do not conduct such transactions with Iran at this time."
"People have been talking about this pipeline for a long time, but I think there continue to be many challenges, and to actually building the pipeline."
"Nonetheless, we have encouraged our friends in the government of Pakistan to try to seek alternatives. Our concerns about the government of Iran are very well known, and given its current unwillingness to address its international obligations and international concerns about its nuclear programme, we don't think that this is the time for such transactions to be taking place with Iran," he added.
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