US lawmakers back Obama's proposal for Bill Clinton as special envoy on India-Pakistan

NEW YORK - Two Leading U.S. senators Sunday backed President-elect Barack Obama’s proposal for appointing a high-level US envoy for resolving outstanding problems between India and tensions, including Kashmir.
Senator Richard Lugar, ranking Republican on the influential Foreign Relations Committee, Democratic Senator Jack Reed, who serves on the Armed Services Committee, underscored the need for moving rapidly to ease the current tensions between the two South Asian neighbours in the wake of terrorist attacks on Mumbai.
In an interview with Time magazine ahead of his election as president on November 4 election, Obama, who will be sworn-in on January 20, said he might consider appointing former President Bill Clinton as special envoy on Jammu and Kashmir in an effort resolve Indo-Pakistan problems, including the decades-old Kashmir dispute.
"I’m confident that there is a good opportunity at this point for the Indians and the Pakistanis to understand that this group that probably caused this could cause harm to both of them,” Sen.Lugar told ABC’s news programme: This Week.
“But I think that the suggestion just made that President-elect Obama send a very high-level person to the situation underlines the need for diplomacy on our part, diplomacy now as well as diplomacy in the Obama administration,” the senator, who has sponsored a legislation on $ 15 billion socio-economic assistance for Pakistan over a decade, said.