TASHKENT: The Pakistan foreign minister Assef Ahmad All On a visit to Uzbekistan last week warmed that nuclear war may engulf South Asia if his country’s territorial dispute with India went unresolved. This comes on the heels of a US state department press advisory in Washington Clarifying the President Mr. Bill Clinton’s letter to the Kashmir separatist Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai. Ali told a news conference in Tashkent that unless Islamabad’s dispute with Delhi over Kashmir Was settled peacefully war was possible Unless the Kashmir dispute is solved peacefully on the terms Of international law and United Nations resolutions there Cannot be lasting peace in South Asia and there is always a danger of a fourth War in South Asia he said.
And this time around the concern of the world the concern of South Asian countries and regional countries is that if a war takes place in South Asia it might become a nuclear war’ he declared.
Foreign diplomats in Tashkent said that Ali may have raised the Specter of nuclear war in order to focus world attention on the problem and squeeze concessions from India.
It is very important for all countries in the region to recognize the immense danger to the world of a war in South Asia which could become the first nuclear war in the history of this part of the world Ali said.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 21, 1994
