NEW DELHI: A former senior US official has echoed senior BJP leader L K Advani's views that American policy failed to recognize Pakistan as the epicenter of international terror. "I think it was the failure of the American policy," former US Ambassador Robert Blackwill told NDTV.
"Perhaps, I could have done more," he said when pointed out that Advani in his memoirs 'My Country My Life' has mentioned that America did not help to block the hijacked Indian Airlines flight at the Dubai airport en-route to Kandahar.
Blackwill admitted that Advani had impressed upon him five years ago that Pakistan is the epicenter of international terrorism and agreed with the former Deputy Prime Minister's view that America did not respond to it fast enough.
"Well, I agree with that. By the way, we should have done more during those years when (Pakistan President Pervez) Musharraf was at the height of his power," he said. Blackwill noted that the US co-operates with India in many ways most of which are not in the public domain.
In his book Advani writes that America, with its considerable military presence and diplomatic influence in the Gulf region, could have taken some effective proactive steps to put the hijacked plane out of action.
A few days after the crisis had ended, Advani says he made his displeasure known to Blackwill during a meeting. "'This is not what we understand by Indo-US cooperation in fighting terrorism,' I told him.
That experience reinforced my belief that India has to fight its war on terror essentially on its own," Advani writes. In another TV interview, with CNBC, Blackwill said Advani appears to have got it wrong when he contends that he spoke to him seeking Washington's help to end the 1999 Kandahar hijack crisis.
Blackwill said he was in the US during the Kandahar crisis and had come to India as Ambassador two years after the hijack crisis. Blackwill told Karan Thapar's 'India Tonight' program that the former Deputy Prime Minister might have spoken to his predecessor Richard Celeste during the Kandahar crisis.
"Well, when I was Ambassador here, Advani on several occasions described this episode to me along the lines of his effort to solicit American help during that crisis, help in Dubai in giving Indian commandos access to the plane and so forth and his enormous frustration that the administration was unresponsive," the former US envoy said.
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