I'm John Batchel with my two colleagues, Hussein Akani, from Hudson and Bill Rajo from Foundation for the Defense of Democracy.

Hussain is a former ambassador from Pakistan to the United States.

I read from Reuters, Mr. Ambassador.

The U.S. State Department said Washington was in touch with both India and Pakistan

while urging them to work towards what it called a, quote, responsible solution as tensions have risen

in the two Asian nations. What is your measure of the U.S.'s participation in this long-standing

dispute? Kashmir has been a powder keg for decades. participation in this long-standing dispute,

Kashmir has been a powder keg for decades.

Well, if the present of the United States history,

we believe it has been a powder keg for centuries,

he said that it's been going on for 1,500 years,

notwithstanding the fact that Pakistan has only existed for 78.

I think that the president's instincts are not to get involved in third-party conflicts and less than until the outcome is the one that he or the United States may want.

And here, the United States doesn't know what outcome would be truly favorable to U.S.

interests.

So stay out as much as possible.

That said, of course, the U.S. does not want an escalation that could end up involving some kind of a use of

tactical or strategic nuclear weapons.

And so in the past, and this has been going on since the 90s, the US has always joined

other countries in trying to put pressure on both India and Pakistan to back off

and to find face-saving measures that are acceptable to both sides.

That happened in the 1999-Kargyl conflict.

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