Donald Trump’s administration is pressing to prevent Indian missile attacks against Pakistan from becoming a nuclear confrontation, offering mediating in what is the first major international crisis in exploding the inauguration.
The president of the United States said he expected “that they could stop now.”
“If I can do something to help, I will be there,” he said on Wednesday. “My position is that I get along with both, I know both very well and I want to see that they solve it.”
India and Pakistan face their worst clash in more than two decades, after New Delhi hit what he called “terrorist infrastructure” and Islamabad said that he knocked down Indian airplanes and promised to take reprisals for the missile strike.
Pakistan’s armed forces spokesman, Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, said Thursday that the country’s aerial defenses knocked up 25 Indian drones near several cities, including the main Karachi and Lahore urban centers, which had been civilians and civilian civilians and civilian civilians civilians civilians civilians and civilian civilians and civilly injured civilians and injured civilians and civilly injured civilians and injured civilians and civilly injured civilians and civilly injured civilians. injured. and civilian and civilly injured and civil and injured civil and injured civilian and injured civil and civilly injured and civilly injured and civil and civilly injured and civil and civilly injured and civilly injured and civilly injured and 32 dead and 61 injured.
He called the alleged drone attack “Another shameless military act of aggression against Pakistan.” Indian officials did not respond to a request for comments.
Meanwhile, the retaliation strikes on Wednesday by the Pakistani army on the Indian side of the control line, the facto border in Kashmira, killed 13 civilians and wounded 59, Indian officials said Thursday.
Marco Rubio, Secretary of State of the United States, has been in contact with both countries and spoke separately with his Saudi counterpart, Prince Faisal Bin Farhan Al-Saud on Wednesday to discuss how to calm the conflict.
But while the United States has acted as a mediator in previous crises in southern Asia, exercising a soothing influence that has helped avoid direct war, Washington can be too distracted by Ukraine and Gaza in shock in Itolve, said Indian and pastures analysts.
Washington’s messages since the attack has been inconsistent, experts said. The United States strongly condemned the trigger for the attacks of Indian missiles: a terrorist attack in Pahalgam, in the territory in a coffee dispute, on April 22 that killed 26 people.
But in the days after the attack, Rubio urged Indian and Pakistani governments to work together to “descalize tensions” and “maintain peace and security in southern Asia.”
That was not good in New Delhi, said Tanvi Madan, an expert in southern Asia at the Brookings institution. “When something like this happens, a call is seen so that both parties break up in India asking for an Indian reverse, and that is not something that the United States would expect, say, Israel after a terrorist attack,” he said.
Meanwhile, India said that the duration of a May 1 call between the Secretary of Defense of the United States, Pete Heghseth, and his Indian counterpart Rajnath Singh, Washington had repeated the strong support of the United States government in the terrorism of struggle of India “and” and “and” and “and” and “and” and “and” and “and” and “and”
That suggested a green light for Indian retaliation, said Madan.
Then, three days after the incident, Trump commented that the two countries “would solve it in one way or another,” and added: “There is a great tension between Pakistan and India, but it has always had bone.”
Hoeed Yusuf, the main member of the Expert Group of the Belfer Center of Harvardios and the former National Security Advisor of Pakistan, said that Washington’s approach to the tensions that arise after the terrorist attack of April 22 has been more “non -intervention” than in previous crises.
“They may have calculated that someone else would do it [mediate]And nobody did, “said Yusuf.” But there is no other country but the United States that can force India and Pakistan to descale. “
Yusuf said that the United States has “choreographic diplomatic efforts” to resolve previous disputes between the two countries, with US allies such as Russia and China “aligned” behind the initiatives. But it wasn’t clear if the same would happen this time.
The conflict comes when the United States is trying to deepen its relationship with India and Pakistan. Nueva Delhi and Washington have a strategic association, of defense and expanding technology, largely aimed at counteracting China, and the two countries are dedicated to conversations about a bilateral trade aimed at defending the threats of rates in the triumphs.
India struggled to keep the United States about the missile attack. Shortly after he hit Pakistan, Ajit Doval, National Security Advisor of India, spoke with Rubio and his counterparts in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Japan, according to a source of the Indian government.
Pakistan has the traditional leg a critical buyer of US military hardware and is also a regional security partner, although this role has decreased as the routing of the Taliban of a government backed by the West in Afghanistan in 2021.
Muhammad Aurengzeb, Minister of Finance of Pakistan, told The Financial Times on Wednesday that his country would welcome “any role” that the United States and other partners could play in mediating tensions with India.
“The United States is a very, very important strategic partner,” he said. “We would like to welcome any partner.
Additional Humza Jilani reports in Islamabad and Andres Schipani in New Delhi
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