The UK feared an India-Pakistan nuclear war in the wake of the terror attack on the Indian Parliament in 2001 and tried to “persuade and cajole” the two countries to pull back from a military confrontation, according to evidence presented to an inquiry into the 2003 Iraq war.
In an attempt to highlight other pressing matters at the time, Straw said he had been preoccupied with the India-Pakistan issue on an “hour by hour” basis which formed the grounds for his close relationship with his US counterpart at the time Colin Powell.