London could mediate over Kashmir: Musharraf

Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf would welcome British involvement in negotiations with India over Kashmir, and would raise the matter with British Prime Minister Tony Blair during talks in London, he told The Times in an interview. Musharraf, who arrived in London Sunday after meetings in Washington, said: “I would love Britain to play a role” as an intermediary in the decades-old dispute. But he accepted that for 30 years India and Pakistan had agreed to strict bilateral negotiations. Until last year this had yielded little but he was “very hopeful” that both sides were now able to move forward, especially with British help behind the scenes. The Pakistan leader said he also intended to ask Blair to take tougher action against Islamist extremists using Britain as a haven. Pakistan had sometimes “had to inform” British officials about them, he said. “I know some areas where there are extremists … sometimes educated in London,” he said, in an apparent reference to the killer of the American journalist Daniel Pearl, who studied at the London School of Economics. General Musharraf said he had told President George W. Bush that a key to wiping out terrorism worldwide was to resolve the Palestinian question. “We must address the root causes, and get to the source of what produces terrorism,” he said. That would “kill 50 percent of the problem” in Iraq, he added. Musharraf said of Bush “I know him by now,” adding: “I think he wants to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli question. I sense urgency in him.” Musharraf was to hold talks with Blair at Downing Street before going on to Paris. Full Story