Obama On Appointing Bill Clinton As Special Envoy On Kashmir

Pulse

-Staff

By Staff

Thursday, November 6, 2008, 11:36

The former US President, Bill Clinton could be chosen to be appointed as the special envoy on Jammu and Kashmir issue, was hinted by none other than the new US President elect, Barack Obama. Obama stated that Clinton had had an experience of dealing with the problems of the Indian sub continent.

Obama reportedly said this in an interview with Time magazine.

Clinton had played a role in ending the Kargil crisis in Kashmir in 1999.

Calling Kashmir an 'interesting situation', Obama said he was ready to explore US's role "to devote serious diplomatic resources to get a special envoy in there, to figure out a plausible approach".

Obama remained optimistic about changing the regional dynamic, recognising that Kashmir was 'obviously a potential tar pit' for American diplomacy,

"Working with Pakistan and India to try to resolve the Kashmir crisis in a serious way was one of the most 'critical tasks' for my administration," the Daily Times quoted Obama's words in the interview.

However the Kashmiris feel very strongly about Obama's statement during his last phase of poll campaign last week, that if he won the election he would like to mediate between India and Pakistan to try to resolve the Kashmir issue. The Kashmiris strongly feel that it was an unnecessary interference in the Kashmiri issue.