White House: Rice wants to ease tensions

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is hoping to “help reduce tensions”
between India and Pakistan following the Mumbai terrorist attack last week, the
White House said Monday.

“It’s a very serious situation and there’s no doubt there’s a lot of
tension,” White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters.

{mosads}“The good news is that the Pakistanis and the Indians have an open line
of communication,” she stated. “This is something they didn’t have just even a
few years ago. We have encouraged them to open that line of communication,
and the Indians have gotten some responses from the Pakistanis that they are
committed to following through on this investigation. That’s a good and positive
step.”

Rice, who is en route to India, will not only “show solidarity” but
also hopes to stop “the terror threat from expanding.”

Perino stated that she has “heard nothing that says that the Pakistani
government was involved” in the attacks, adding that the U.S. has “no reason”
not to trust that Karachi will help investigate the terrorist act.

“Everything that they have said in their public statements and in their
private statements to us has been encouraging from that regard,” she added.

The attacks have added to longstanding tensions between India and
Pakistan, two nuclear powers that have clashed often in the past.

“We’ve been trying to encourage and improve dialogue between the two
countries,” she said. “The other thing we’ve tried to do is encourage them to
break down barriers for economic trade and transit so that people could go back
and forth.”