Islamabad appeals to international mediation

Islamabad believes that active mediation of the international community is required to unblock the strained situation on the Indian-Pakistani border, said Iftihar Murshed, Pakistan's ambassador to Russia. "The current situation does not exclude the possibility of a new conflict," he stressed, adding that "Pakistan will not be the first to start military actions" or "to use nuclear weapons". Pakistan considers its nuclear weapons "a means of restrain, which helps to avoid war between the two countries," he said. Next week Great Britain's foreign minister and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan will visit Islamabad in this connection, Murshed pointed out.