Pakistan has failed to offer even the tiniest olive branch

With the world's two newest nuclear powers on the brink of all-out war over Kashmir, yesterday's broadcast by the President of Pakistan had been keenly awaited. But the four-star general, who has risen so convincingly to a succession of crises since the events of 11 September, offered little in the way of hope or reassurance in a disappointing address.

Pervez Musharraf's speech was, in fact, as significant for what it did not say as for what it did. He produced no dramatic initiatives nor even the smallest or most tentative of olive branches. And, amid his many protestations that Islamabad had only peaceful intentions and would not start any war, he stressed time and again that Pakistan was fully prepared to fight if war were thrust upon it.

In particular, and contrary to some expectations, he proposed no tougher measures against anti-India terrorists who may be sheltering in Pakistan. He simply denied that the problem existed, at the same time undertaking to continue his country's support for what he called Kashmir's "struggle for freedom". The effect is to leave Pakistan's policy pretty much where it was after his last nationwide broadcast in January – with a call for the resumption of talks and a bilateral pullback of troops – in circumstances, at least in Kashmir and its immediate vicinity, that are considerably more perilous.

There was something even more worrying than Mr Musharraf's failure to display any shred of new thinking. This was the erosion in his domestic authority the broadcast betrayed. In his demeanour, as in his words, the President of Pakistan was a less confident man than he had been last autumn when he threw his personal weight, and the weight of his office, behind the US-led action in Afghanistan.

Yesterday, he all but admitted that the recent referendum, held to cement his authority before autumn parliamentary elections, had done no such thing. Few leaders can show boldness, wisdom and vision while looking over their shoulders. Yet, if war is to be averted, those qualities are needed from the leaders on either side of the Kashmir "control line" as never before.