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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dalvinder Singh Grewal" data-source="post: 226817" data-attributes="member: 22683">Chapter X                                DIPLOMATIC WARThe G-8 countries have sensed the urgency in India's tone. US diplomats have told their Indian counterparts that President Bill Clinton is "personally involved" in bringing the conflict to a quick end and point to his tough telephone talk with Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on June 15 as proof. They have assured India that the US is looking for a solution that would "take only days, not weeks." On June 24, Clinton dispatched General Anthony Zinni, chief of the US Central Command, and Gibson Lanpher, deputy assistant secretary of state, to Islamabad to reportedly pressure Pakistan, especially its army, into ending the aggression. That Zinni and Lanpher did some arm-twisting was clear from the tone of Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesman Tariq Altaf who said later, "The US has brought a narrow point of view which is not fair and balanced and will only encourage India to talk of war and wider conflict." There were many in Pakistan who pooh-poohed the US initiative. General (retd) Mirza Aslam Beg, former chief of army staff, said contemptuously, "We don't give much importance to the visit. We are not an American colony. We cannot be dictated to by others and will do what suits our national interests." Meanwhile, India has been pushing the G-8 countries to take some tough economic measures against Pakistan. Especially since the country's foreign-exchange reserves are disastrously low and it depends heavily on funding from international agencies such as the IMF to bail it out. It is also in the interest of the US to rein in Pakistan. There are concerns the country is increasingly becoming the hub of Islamic fundamentalism and supporting the Osama Bin Laden type of terrorism that the US wants to crush. The international community too does not want a full-scale war to break out between India and Pakistan, as it has the potential to escalate into a nuclear battle. India has launched a massive diplomatic offensive to get the world to see its point-of-view. It knows it will have international support so long as it does not cross the LoC. Therefore, Vajpayee is likely to give the army the go-ahead to cross the LoC only when all diplomatic efforts to get Pakistan to pull out are exhausted or the military action of rooting out the intruders from Kargil gets bogged down. </blockquote>

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