U.S. Department of State

Daily Press Briefing

MR. RUBIN: I am shocked, I am shocked - there is gambling going on here.

Today is Monday. Welcome to the State Department briefing. We have one statement on the visa lottery issues that we'll be providing after the briefing - the so-called Diversity Immigrant Visa Program. With that statement, let me turn to one of our key members of the Associated Press - let's go far left, Mr. Schweid.

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QUESTION: Is the State Department keeping track of the violence that is going on between India and Pakistan? And does the United States play any role in trying to mediate an end to that?

MR. RUBIN: From Thursday through Saturday, artillery and small arms exchanges across the line of control separating Kashmir intensified, reportedly killing dozens of people -- many of them civilians. Sunday and today, however, the fighting tapered off significantly. There are firing incidents along the line of control almost daily during the summer, but the recent exchanges were particularly intense. Adding to the tensions are continued killings of civilians inside Kashmir and now in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. We condemn these acts of terrorism.

The volatility of Kashmir is a stark reminder of the pressing need for India and Pakistan to resolve their differences. This is particularly true now, following the Indian and Pakistani nuclear tests in which have significantly raised the stakes in their disputes. We have made clear to both sides in the past that they should refrain from provocative actions as well as provocative rhetoric. I would expect those messages to be sent -- most recently in response to those fightings - very shortly.

We urge the two countries to resume the senior-level dialogue as soon as possible, and to approach these talks imaginatively and constructively. We are willing to assist the parties in this process at the request of both parties; we don't offer to mediate unless requested by both sides.

QUESTION: You said messages have been sent - someone is on his way or --

MR. RUBIN: I expect it to be done shortly. If it hasn't occurred already.

QUESTION: Well if you don't want to announce --

MR. RUBIN: I just don't know, Barry.

QUESTION: But you mean physically will be delivered.

MR. RUBIN: No, no, I'm talking about a diplomatic message from our government to the Indian and Pakistani Governments, not a new trip or a new envoy or anything.

QUESTION: Not the Secretary of State or anything?

MR. RUBIN: No. I'm talking about a message - government-to-government message which either has occurred or will occur shortly.

QUESTION: Jamie, the situation appears to be deteriorating with the bad meeting in Colombo between the two leaders; now the fighting intensifying in Kashmir. And as you said, given the background of all of this, isn't your concern raised even higher than it was after the tests now? Do you see things deteriorating as they appear to be or is not --

MR. RUBIN: I don't know that I would agree with the characterization of an across-the-board deterioration. Clearly, the meetings were not fully successful and at the - in Sri Lanka, I guess they were; but, we have been in touch with both the Indians and the Pakistanis in a very intense discussion in recent weeks. Secretary Albright had some opportunity to do that on her trip, and obviously Deputy Secretary Talbott has gone through extensive discussions with the two sides. He's going to continue to do that, and there are additional meetings planned in the coming weeks. So that is the diplomatic effort that we're doing, and we believe there is enough reason for optimism to continue working on it. That doesn't mean that we're likely to see a breakthrough by any stretch of the imagination, but we're working the problem.

With respect to the fighting, I think what I - the information I've received is that it tends to go up and down at this time of year. This was a particularly intense outburst of fighting with a particularly tragic loss of life, but it has calmed down today and yesterday.

QUESTION: Do you see one side or the other being more inflexible than the other? I mean, it seems like --

MR. RUBIN: At this point, I haven't gotten the kind of report from Deputy Secretary Talbott that would encourage me to make that kind of a judgment.

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QUESTION: This is getting back to the cross-border shelling between India and Pakistan over the weekend. Some of our sources have speculated to us that Pakistan especially is being made very desperate now by the impact of our sanctions on its economy. Congress is considering a 12-month waiver --

MR. RUBIN: Who - our sources - who?

QUESTION: I'm with Radio-Free Asia.

MR. RUBIN: All right. So your sources --

QUESTION: Our sources are speculating to us that Pakistan is being driven to irrational actions because of its economy suffering from our sanctions. Congress is considering a 12-month waiver on our sanctions. Do you foresee any way that that process could be speeded up in order to take some of the pressure off?

MR. RUBIN: Let me address those one at a time. Number one, on the sanctions, we intend to continue to pursue the sanctions policy that was a result of Pakistan's decision to test. We never wanted to see the sanctions destroy the Pakistani economy, and we're very cognizant of the state of their economy. We are not seeking, nor I believe is Congress proposing, a 12-month waiver across the board of all sanctions. We do want to see greater flexibility provided to the Executive Branch so that we're in a position to waive, in whole or in part, certain of the sanctions if, and only if, there is progress made on the steps that we want to see in the area of arms control -- and that is, in principle, the signing of the Comprehensive Test Ban and commitments not to exacerbate the arms race.

To the extent that legislation is designed to give us flexibility to respond to changes by India and Pakistan, by waiving, in whole or in part, sanctions, we support that as a matter of flexibility; but we are not there yet. In the meantime, we will continue to implement the Glenn Amendment and other laws with an eye towards making sure there is no humanitarian collapse as a result of these sanctions. But the sanctions are in place; I don't believe Congress is seeking to eliminate them for the next 12 months. We, the Administration, would like to see flexibility so that we can waive them, in whole or in part, in response to changes and developments in the field.

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