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Pakistan needs to co-operate fully and transparently: Rice : US urges caution as India keeps all options open

* Rice refuses to jump to conclusions about fixing responsibility for Mumbai attacks
* Mukherjee sure Pakistan involved

By Iftikhar Gilani

NEW DELHI: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday called on Pakistan to co-operate ‘urgently, transparently and with special responsibility’, but warned that India should ensure its response to Pakistan over the Mumbai terror attacks does not provoke unintended consequences as AFP reported India was keeping all its options open in dealing with Pakistan.

APP reported that the White House was working to ease tensions between the two nuclear-armed rivals. Addressing a joint press conference with Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee here after talks, Rice expressed solidarity with the people of India. About possible military strikes on Pakistan, she skirted questions on US support for India, and warned that any response needed to be judged in effectiveness. Rice said Pakistan needed to provide ‘complete, urgent and transparent cooperation’.

Not jumping to conclusions: She, however, said she would not jump to conclusions in fixing responsibility for the attacks.
“The Pakistani government has said unequivocally it intends to co-operate,” she said ahead of her talks with the minister.
“Whether there is a direct Al Qaeda hand or not … this is clearly the kind of terrorism in which Al Qaeda participates,” said Rice. But AP quoted her as saying at the joint press conference, “We are not saying Al Qaeda is the perpetrator here ... there are elements of this that remind us these extremists are perhaps learning from each other. But clearly the sophistication of the attack was what I was addressing.”

Mukherjee said his government would act ‘decisively’ to protect India’s territorial integrity. About the intended action after Zardari’s rejection of the demand to hand over fugitives, he said future developments would depend on Pakistan’s response to an Indian demarche.
‘Pakistan involved’: Mukherjee said he had told Rice that there was “no doubt the attacks were perpetrated by individuals who came from Pakistan and their controllers are in Pakistan”. Rice will now travel to Islamabad today to discuss the situation with Pakistani leaders.

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