Islamabad:
The United States intervened Wednesday to help defuse a tense dead end between Pakistan and India, urging both parties to cooperate with each other in order to defuse tensions and maintain peace and security in South Asia.
The US Secretary of State has launched separate telephone calls with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Indian Minister for External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, and discussed the recent situation in South Asia, following the Pahalgam incident on April 22.
According to an official Islamabad document, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif informed Rubio from Pakistan’s point of view concerning recent developments and urged the United States to impress India to compose rhetoric and act responsible.
Since last week, tensions have intensified between Pakistan and India after the latter’s base of the latter against Pakistan following Pahalgam’s attack in Jammu and Kashmir who killed 26 tourists.
On Wednesday, India announced punitive measures, in particular the demode of diplomatic links, the suspension of the Water Treaty of the Indus (IWT), the expulsion of Pakistani citizens and the closure of the border crossing of Wagah-Attari and the Pakistani High Commissioner in Delhi.
Pakistan also gave a corresponding response and closed the country’s airspace for Indian planes. Pakistan has warned that any attempt by India to stop the flow of water to Pakistan would be considered an act of war and would get a suitable response.
The Prime Minister also offered Pakistan cooperation in India by putting a transparent investigation into the attack. Pakistan also spoke concerned by the incident and offered condolences to the families of the victims.
In Washington, the spokesman for the State Department, Tammy Bruce, said that Secretary Rubio had called on the Pakistani Prime Minister to condemn Pahalgam’s attack and cooperate in an investigation, while encouraging India to defuse.
Secretary Rubio “spoke of the need to condemn the terrorist attack on April 22 in Pahalgam,” said Bruce. The secretary “urged the cooperation of Pakistani officials in the investigation into this unreasonable attack,” she added in a statement.
In a separate telephone call with Jaishankar, “the secretary expressed his pain for lost life in the horrible terrorist attack in Pahalgam, and reaffirmed the commitment of the United States to cooperation with India against terrorism,” said Bruce. “He also encouraged India to work with Pakistan to defuse tensions and maintain peace and security in South Asia.”
According to the document issued in Islamabad, Prime Minister Shehbaz received a telephone call from the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and informed him from the Pakistan point of view concerning recent developments in South Asia, following the Pahalgam incident.
While condemning terrorism in all its forms and demonstrations, Prime Minister Shehbaz underlined the main role of Pakistan in the war against terrorism and the country’s sacrifice of more than 90,000 lives lost and more than $ 152 billion in economic losses.
In accordance with the delicious and disturbing Escallation and Provocative behaviors of India, Shehbaz said that the provocations of India would only be to distract Pakistan from its current efforts to defeat terrorism, in particular militant groups, including the Islamic-Khorasan State (IS-K), the Baloch-Liberation Armed soil.
The Prime Minister categorically rejected Indian attempts to connect Pakistan to the pahalgam incident and stressed his call for a transparent, credible and neutral investigation to bring out the facts. He urged the United States to impress India to compose rhetoric and to act responsible.
Shehbaz said it was very unfortunate that India has chosen water, which was the life buoy of 240 million people from Pakistan, while stressing that the IWT had no provision for both parties to reborn its commitments unilaterally. He also pointed out that the peaceful resolution of the Jammu and cashmere dispute was the only way to ensure lasting peace in South Asia.
On bilateral cooperation, the Prime Minister stressed that Pakistan and the United States have worked together in the past 70 years and that there have been a lot on which the two parties could cooperate, including the fight against terrorism and increased economic cooperation, in particular the mineral sector.
He also pointed out that his government had undertaken major economic reforms in the past year and, therefore, Pakistan was now on the path of economic recovery. He responded to his good wishes for President Donald Trump, while expressing Pakistan’s desire to work closely with the American administration in all areas of mutual interest.
According to the document, Secretary of State Rubio thanked the Prime Minister for the detailed conversation and underlined the need for both parties for continuing to work together for peace and stability in South Asia.
On Wednesday, Rubio telephone calls followed a statement by the Minister of Information Atta Tarar that Pakistan had “credible information that India intends to launch military action within 24 to 36 hours”.
However, despite telephone calls, India has taken other measures, closing its airspace in Pakistani Airlines. The government said in an opinion that the ban would last from April 30 to May 23. The impact of the prohibition of the Pakistan air transport industry was probably lower.
Only Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) operates roads to Kuala Lumpur using Indian airspace. PIA, the national carrier, said on Tuesday that he had decided to avoid Indian airspace following increasing bilateral tensions.
In an exclusive interview with Newsweek, an American weekly magazine circulating en masse, the Pakistan ambassador to Washington Rizwan Saeed Sheikh urged President Trump to intervene and relieve the soil tensions between India and Pakistan.
“If we have a president who represents peace in the world as an objective pronounced during this administration, to establish an inheritance as a peacemaker, or as a person who finished the wars, challenged the wars and played a role in the conflection, by resolving disputes, I do not think there is a higher or more flashy flash point, in particular nuclear terms,” Sheikh said.
“We are not talking about one or two countries in this district capable of nuclear power. So it’s how serious it is.” Sheikh argued that the Trump administration needed a more complete and sustained initiative than what has witnessed in the past to defuse crises between two countries.
(With the contribution of agencies)
