Doha [Qatar], September 16 (ANI): Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar has said that India categorically rejected any third-party mediation on bilateral issues during Operation Sindoor, contradicting claims by US President Donald Trump.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Dar stated that Islamabad raised the issue of mediation with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who responded that India opposed any outside involvement.
The minister recounted a specific discussion with Rubio regarding Trump’s assertions about mediating a May 10 ceasefire between the two countries. Dar said that during a bilateral meeting on July 25 in Washington, Rubio confirmed that India maintained its position, insisting the matter was strictly “bilateral.”
“Incidentally, when the ceasefire offer came through [US] Secretary [of State] Rubio to me on the 10th of May, I was told there would be a dialogue between Pakistan and India at an independent place. When we met on the 25th of July during a bilateral meeting with Secretary Rubio in Washington, I asked him, ‘What happened to those dialogues?’ He said, ‘India says it is a bilateral issue,’” Dar said.
His remarks challenge Trump’s repeated claims that the US brokered the ceasefire between the two nuclear-armed neighbors amid heightened tensions during Operation Sindoor — India’s precision strikes on nine terrorist infrastructures in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK). The strikes followed the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people.
Since May, Trump has maintained that his administration’s mediation averted a potential “nuclear war.” India has categorically denied this, stating the ceasefire resulted from direct military-to-military talks between the Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs) of the two nations.
Dar emphasized Islamabad’s willingness to engage in talks but stressed that dialogue must be comprehensive, covering terrorism, trade, the economy, and Jammu and Kashmir.
“We don’t mind, but India has categorically been stating it’s bilateral. We don’t mind bilateral. However, the dialogues must be comprehensive, encompassing discussions on terrorism, trade, the economy, and Jammu and Kashmir. All these subjects we have both been discussing,” he said.
“We are not begging for anything. If any country wants dialogue, we are happy, we are welcome. We believe that dialogue is the way forward, but obviously it takes two to tango. So, unless India wishes to have dialogue, we can’t force dialogue. We don’t wish to force dialogue,” Dar added. (ANI)
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