The sources said this would be part of Washington's aggressive diplomacy to promote its Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy, the success of which rests on Pakistan moving considerable more troops to its western border to take on the Taliban insurgency, the Al Qaeda network, which can only happen if Islamabad recognises that its internal extremist threat -- and not India -- poses the real challenge to the integrity of the Pakistani State.
The Obama administration, the sources said, would endeavour to get India more heavily involved in the regional approach of its AfPak strategy, and in doing so bring Delhi and Islamabad together, arguing that this is integral not only to the stability of Afghanistan and Pakistan, but to the region as a whole.
Last week during the interaction between members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Richard Holbrooke, Obama's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, avoided commenting on what the US can do to urge India to ease its tensions with Pakistan.
'I appreciate your question -- it's of the highest importance. With great respect, since we are in the final days and hours of an election in India where 700 million people are voting, and since any comment I would make might be misunderstood in that context, I would rather just simply restrict myself to saying that my job is Afghanistan and Pakistan,' he said.
However, Holbrooke, who was responding to a question posed by Senator Robert P Casey Jr, the Democrat from Pennsylvania, pointed out that 'at all steps in the process, we keep the Indians fully informed.'
'They are not only an interested party, they are arguably the interested party,' he emphasised, 'although many other countries, including most notably China and Iran, have borders with Afghanistan and have also interests.'
But he reiterated that 'India's interests are very high -- India is the great regional power and I have great personal respect and affection for India.'
Holbrooke told the lawmakers that 'they (India) have a new ambassador (Meera Shankar)who just arrived and I met her as soon as she was in Washington, and we will keep India fully informed and the issues you raised are on great concern to us.'
Casey spoke about the Pakistan military's obsession with India, and argued that 'I think most Americans can understand or appreciate some of that obsession. Every country, has its focus -- we had a threat over many generations posed by the Soviet Union. We understand that.'
But he bemoaned that 'it's becoming an increasingly difficult problem to solve because if the Pakistani government and their military forces are focused only or largely on India, it's going to be very difficult to make it work militarily.'
'I ask you this and I say this as someone last May -- I was in all three countries (India, Pakistan and Afghanistan) and at one point sitting with the ational Security Adviser in India in the context of Iran, I said, 'Look, I know that you have a lot of ties to IranIndia does. And, I know that you have strong relationships. But you got to help us with this nuclear threat posed by Iran.'"
The Senator told Holbrooke, obviously in pushing the Administration to urge New Delhi to ease up on its tensions with Pakistan to facilitate the AfPak strategy, that "we've asked a lot of countries and countries have asked us to set aside or to move to one side temporarily, a rivalry or concern."
"I ask you this and I know it's a long lead-up, (but) I ask you this with regard to Indiasteps that India an take in the context of this whole discussion to help lower the temperature or create an environment where Pakistan can ease up a little bitas they have already because I know they've moved some of their military forces from the borderbut are there efforts that India can undertake, not just on its own, but by our urging that would help here."
But of course, last week, particularly on the eve of the final phase of India's election, Holbrooke just wasn't biting.
