NY Times: Pakistan May Relent on Kashmir Demand

[La_Serpiente]

Pakistan May Relent on Kashmir Demand

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Dec. 18 — Pakistan has offered to drop a 50-year-old demand for a United Nations-mandated plebiscite over divided Kashmir and to meet India "halfway" in a bid for peace on the Indian subcontinent.

The proposal by President Pervez Musharraf presented a new opportunity to resolve the dispute between the nuclear-armed neighbors, political commentators said, even though hurdles remain on the path to peace.

All eyes will now be on the planned visit of India's prime minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, to Islamabad for a South Asian summit meeting in early January.

In an interview less than three weeks before the meeting, General Musharraf said late Wednesday that he was prepared to be "bold and flexible" in an effort to resolve the dispute over Kashmir.

"If we want to resolve this issue, both sides need to talk to each other with flexibility, coming beyond stated positions, meeting halfway somewhere," he said. "We are prepared to rise to the occasion. India has to be flexible also."

For more than 50 years, Pakistan has insisted on a plebiscite to allow people in Kashmir, the disputed Himalayan region, to decide between joining India or Pakistan, a position backed by a series of United Nations Security Council resolutions in the late 1940's.

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Pakistan May Relent on Kashmir Demand

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