Daily Times

Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that the three major world powers – the United States, China and Russia – should join hands to help resolve several international issues, including the longstanding Kashmir dispute.

“The worst in this [Kashmir] case is unimaginable that the two nuclear armed countries getting into conflict. The only way is that US President Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping use their influence to settle the issue,” Imran Khan told Russia Today’s Paula Slier in an interview telecast on Friday.

The prime minister said what New Delhi is doing in the occupied valley is going to have consequences way beyond India and the sub-continent. “This is now going to become a nuclear hotspot. If this becomes a flashpoint of conflict between Pakistan and India, the two nuclear armed countries will come face to face. This is why the world should now act,” he said.

He said Pakistan is opposed to India’s irrational madness and calls upon the international community to realize its responsibility. “No rational human being can talk of a nuclear war. No one wins that war,” he added.

The prime minister said the United Nations and the European countries, including Britain, France and Germany, need to play their role in highlighting the humanitarian crisis in Kashmir following the unilateral step of abrogating the held valley’s special status. “They have to understand that this problem can spiral out of control,” he said, adding that Pakistan will use every forum, including the United Nations and the International Court of Justice, to highlight the atrocities in Indian-held Kashmir.

The prime minister said the only solution to the Kashmir issue is the implementation of UN Security Council resolutions as per the aspirations of the people of Kashmir. He said the Modi government has taken an extremely wrong decision. “They will not be able to suppress the freedom movement in held Kashmir and will have to give Kashmiris the right to self-determination,” he stressed.

To a question about chances of improved ties between Islamabad and New Delhi, Imran Khan said, “No one should expect that talks between Pakistan and India will give some results. As long as they continue to impose curfew on eight million people in Kashmir, there is no question of talking to them at the moment.”

On US pullout from Afghanistan, he said it should not be made until there is a political settlement there. “The settlement has to be inclusive and planned. The US should not leave as the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) did leaving behind chaos,” he said, adding that Pakistan facilitated the Afghan peace process by urging the Taliban to sit down and talk to the US.

On accusation of giving space to terror groups in Pakistan, he categorically stated that his government has taken steps and it will not allow any terror groups exist in the country. He pointed that India is using Afghan soil to perpetrate terrorism in Pakistan.