Iran’s Top General to Pakistan, India:

Avoid ‘Hasty Decision’ in Kashmir

Date: 10 August 2019 - 22:04

News ID: ۶۹۱۹۳

TEHRAN (Dispatches) -- Iran’s armed forces chief of staff on Saturday cautioned Pakistan and India to avoid any "hasty decision” in Kashmir without considering the wishes of the region’s people, the Fars news agency reported.
Pakistan reacted with fury this week after India revoked the special status for the portion of Kashmir that it controls, calling the action illegal, a claim New Delhi denies.
"The parties are expected to refrain from any hasty decision on the fate of the (Kashmir) region, without regards to the people’s will,” Major General Muhammad Baqeri was quoted by Fars as telling Pakistan’s army chief by telephone.
On Friday, a senior Iranian cleric warned Indian authorities against the use of excessive force against Muslims there.
"We urge the Indian government to refrain from a harsh treatment of Muslims as it will neither be in its interest nor that of the region,” Ayatollah Muhammad Ali Movahedi Kermani told worshipers at weekly Friday prayers in Tehran.
Kashmir has been split between India and Pakistan since their partition in 1947. Both countries claim all of Kashmir and have fought three wars over the territory.
India regularly accuses Pakistan of arming and training militants and allowing them across the frontier. Pakistan strongly rejects the accusation.
Indo-Pakistani relations nosedived in February when over 40 Indian paramilitaries were killed in a bomb attack in Kashmir. New Delhi blamed Pakistan-based militants, but Islamabad denied any involvement.
The Independent's multi-award-winning Middle East correspondent, Robert Fisk, recently wrote in an article that the occupying regime of Israel was playing a big role in India’s escalating conflict with Pakistan.