Attacks originated from
Pakistani soil, reiterates US
By Arun Kumar
Washington,
Dec 10 (IANS) Reiterating that Mumbai terror attacks originated
from Pakistani soil, the United States has said its focus
was on diplomacy to try to bring to justice those responsible
and to prevent any further attacks.
Dismissing
reports in Syrian newspapers blaming "Zionists or Israel
or the United States" for the Mumbai attacks as "Dis-or
misinformation", State Department spokesman Sean McCormack,
Tuesday said: "It's just not true. Just not true. We
know who is responsible."
Asked
to identify the attackers, he said: "Well,... I will
say only, as the Secretary (of State Condoleeza Rice) has
said, that the attacks originated from Pakistani soil."
Reacting
to reports that Pakistan was not ready to hand over any suspect
to India and was prepared to go to war in case New Delhi decided
to attack Pakistani territory, McCormack stressed that the
tone of Rice's meetings in both Pakistan and India was "very
constructive."
"And
everybody in all the meetings wanted to focus on a couple
of things - making sure that those who were responsible for
these attacks were brought to justice, and two; to do everything
possible to prevent future attacks," he said.
Going
by news reports about the steps that Pakistan has taken over
the last couple of days, McCormack said: "As we understand
them, these are good and important steps and could potentially
serve the cause of preventing further attacks. Because that's
the last thing that either side needs."
"I'm
trying to shift you to the focus on the diplomacy here,"
he said when asked if the US would be ready to strike inside
Pakistan to avoid India doing so. "And I think because
that's really where the centre of gravity of the action is
right now."
"These
comments notwithstanding, the centre of gravity is really
on the diplomacy and effective action to try to bring to justice
those responsible and to prevent any further attacks,"
McCormack said.
"And
I would note that the steps that have been reported that Pakistan
has taken are important in that regard," he added.
On
reported calls from many fronts that the US should now declare
Pakistan a terrorist state, McCormack said: "The threat
from violent extremists and terrorists is as great to Pakistan
as it is to anybody else, to India, to the United States,
to other countries around the globe and with interest in that
region.
"So
we know that the Pakistani Government - all elements of the
Pakistani Government understand that," he said.
Asked
if the Bush Administration was pursuing UN sanctions against
former members of Pakistani intelligence allegedly connected
to terror group Lashkar e-Taiba as reported by The Wall Street
Journal, McCormack declined comment on any actions whether
it's the UN or bilaterally that we might take in the financial
area."
But
he declined to deny such a possibility too saying, "I'm
not going to steer you one way or the other" since "we
don't talk about these kinds of things prior to doing them
is you worry about asset flight."
Indo-Asian
News Service
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