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Message: <blockquote data-quote="rapa" data-source="post: 527491" data-attributes="member: 212">LTTE essentially a Sri Lankan group and no "direct" threat to US – Lanka's former US AmbassadorDespite LTTE being banned in the US, the rebel group "was essentially a Sri Lankan group and it did not pose a "direct" threat to the US" said the former US Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Jeffrey Lunstead in a report titled 'The United States' Role in Sri Lanka's Peace Process.' He added "US believed that direct talks with the LTTE was the right thing to do."He also said "Direct US-LTTE links in 2003 would have helped in convincing the LTTE to move away from terrorism and depending on the progress made even delisting it as a foreign terrorist organization."Speaking on US' involvement on the peace process he said "With the approval of the rest of the participants, the US chose to be a "tough cop" in the peace process. It talked tough to the LTTE while aiding the Sri Lankan government militarily (though only modestly with $ 1 million in 2006-7). But the US did not marginalize the LTTE politically because it believed that direct talks with the LTTE were the right thing to do, Lunstead stressed.Explaining the US "double speak" on terrorist groups, he said that the LTTE was essentially a Sri Lankan group and it did not pose a "direct" threat to the US."Lunstead added "the US believed that direct talks with the LTTE were the right thing to do."On the US strategic interest in Sri Lanka, especially Trincomalee, he said that US has no such special interest "as many theorists have been speculating.""While the US has a congenial military to military relationship with Sri Lanka, strategic interests of the type present in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan do not exist" he said. "Contrary to the musings of various South Asian theorists, the US does not have, and has never had, any interest in the use of the harbor at Trincomalee for military purposes," he added.<a href="http://www.asiantribune.com/index.php?q=node/5739" target="_blank">http://www.asiantribune.com/index.php?q=node/5739</a>- Asian Tribune -</blockquote>

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