The India-Pakistan accord

The suggestion by Pakistan that the United States should help resolve the dispute with India over Kashmir brings some optimism to a decidedly grim problem.

Whether Washington has any role to play in settling the 48- year-old dispute over Kashmir remains to be seen. But the new glimmer of hope is tantalizing.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Sardar Aseff Ali was indicating Islamabad wants to settle the Kashmir issue peacefully. Given the simmering tension between Pakistan and India, this is excellent news.

No stone should remain unturned in the effort to prevent another war over the Himalayan state.

India and Pakistan divided Kashmir between them when the two countries won independence from Britain in 1947. In the five decades since then, there have been three wars between the nations.

Two were fought over Kashmir. They settled little.

In the meantime, both countries have continued to build defenses which are both stronger and more terrible.

Pakistan and India both have the means to produce nuclear weapons -- if they already do not own a stockpile of them.

To paraphrase Albert Einstein, it is not clear which weapons would be used in a third war over Kashmir, but India and Pakistan might fight their next war with sticks and stones.

India and other nations should take the suggestion of the Pakistani foreign minister seriously. There are almost certain to be objections from India at the beginning.

New Delhi has been angered by a recent vote by the U.S. Congress which would effectively allow sales of warplanes to Pakistan. What is to be avoided is making the United States the pawn in the proposal for talks.

Indeed, Mr. Aseff Ali erred when he said that "now the ball is in the court of the U.S. to pressure India to come to negotiation table."

The United Nations itself, and many of its members, are as qualified as the United States to provide their good offices to a serious Pakistan-India attempt to agree over Kashmir.

It is not up to the UN, the U.S. or any third party to press New Delhi or Islamabad on the form of peace talks. All nations should stand ready to help such an effort.

-- The Bangkok Post