KARACHI: Pakistan’s envoy to the United States has called on President Donald Trump to step in and help ease soaring tensions with India, Dawn.com reported.
In a recent interview, Pakistan’s Ambassador to the US Rizwan Saeed Sheikh told Newsweek that for a president “standing for peace in the world as a pronounced objective during this administration”, there was no “higher or flashier flashpoint” than the Kashmir issue.
The call for Trump to play a role in reducing the tensions came as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke to top Pakistani and Indian leaders, urging a de-escalation of tensions in the Subcontinent.
“If we have a president who is standing for peace in the world as a pronounced objective during this administration, to establish a legacy as a peacemaker — or as someone who finished wars, defied wars and played a role in de-confliction, resolving the disputes — I don’t think there is any higher or flashier flash point, particularly in nuclear terms, as Kashmir,” Newsweek quoted him as saying.
“We are not talking about one or two countries in that neighbourhood who are nuclear-capable. So, that is how grave it is,” he said.
Pakistan’s envoy to US says no issue ‘higher or flashier’ than Kashmir; says Pakistan focusing on geo-economics, doesn’t want to fight India
In his inaugural speech as the US president, Trump had said: “My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier.”
On his watch, a ceasefire — which has since been broken — was secured between Israel and Hamas, and the US has also been engaging with Ukraine and Russia to halt their war.
According to Newsweek, Mr Sheikh contended that the Trump administration would need to pursue a more comprehensive and sustained initiative than in past US attempts to defuse crises that have erupted between Pakistan and India.
“I think with this threat that we are facing, there is a latent opportunity to address the situation by not just [focusing] on an immediate de-escalatory measure, or a de-escalatory approach,” the envoy said.
He called for a more durable and lasting solution to the Kashmir dispute, “rather than allowing the situation to stay precarious and pop up again and again at the next drop of a hat on this side or that side”.
If the long-standing Kashmir dispute was resolved, the ambassador said, the population of South Asia could live in peace. “All the other issues between Pakistan and India are not major issues,” he noted.
‘Geo-economics’ over geopolitics
Separately, speaking to the Washington Post, Mr Sheikh said that the country could not afford a distraction at a point when things were looking up, economically.
“The only thing we need right now is a peaceful neighborhood.”
“We do not want to fight, particularly with a bigger country,” Mr Sheikh told Newsweek.
“We want peace. It suits our economic agenda; it suits our nationhood. It suits every objective that we have currently. But we want peace with dignity. We would not want to do it, but if it is imposed, then we would rather die with dignity than survive with indignity,” he asserted.
Reiterating Pakistan’s stance, the envoy rejected any involvement of his country in the Pahalgam attack, arguing that the fallout of such an operation could only serve to harm rather than benefit Pakistan’s interests.
“Pakistan is focusing on a matter of a deliberate, considered, pronounced shift of our foreign policy, a pivot from geopolitics to geo-economics,” the envoy told Newsweek.
‘Outlandish’ Indian claims
Terming it “so outlandish, so far-fetched, to blame Pakistan” for the Pahalgam attack, Sheikh said Islamabad was awaiting evidence from New Delhi to prove a link between the incident and Pakistan.
Moreover, the envoy said the attack could be a “false-flag operation” conducted to intentionally lay the blame on Pakistan. He acknowledged he could not yet back up the claim, but there was “enough circumstantial evidence, history, […] immediate backdrop and setting […] to entertain that possibility.
Speaking about India’s unilateral suspension last week of the IWT, Sheikh warned that if there was “even an attempt or a semblance of an attempt” to stop or hold water, then it would be a declaration of war.
While contending that it was “physically impossible” to hold water, the envoy said “all bets are off if it’s about food security of 250 million people”.
“If you threaten me with this kind of a situation, which is existential, what is your expectation of response?” he asked.
